In this article
A story can carry a link as a sticker: a small card with text you choose, placed anywhere on the frame, that opens the address when tapped.
It is the only way out of a story, which makes it the most valuable square centimetre on the screen and the one most often wasted.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Put a tappable link on a story.
- check_circle Write the label that decides whether it is tapped.
- check_circle Place it where a thumb can reach.
- check_circle Know when a link does not belong on a story.
The link becomes a labelled sticker that can be moved anywhere on the frame.
ads_click The only exit
Everything else on a story is something to look at. The link is the only thing that can turn watching into doing, and it competes with a timer that is moving the whole time. A viewer has a couple of seconds to notice it, decide, and reach it with a thumb.
All three of those are affected by choices you make in the composer. Notice: it has to be somewhere the eye goes. Decide: the label has to say what happens next. Reach: it has to be within the arc of a thumb rather than tucked into a top corner.
The label is where most of the loss happens. A card saying "link" tells a viewer nothing about whether it is worth stopping the story for; a card saying what is on the other side — the menu, the tickets, the recipe — is answering the only question they have.
And the timing is a real constraint. If the link appears at the same instant as everything else, it competes with the picture for the first glance. A story that shows the thing for a moment and then carries the link is doing the same work in the right order.
Four decisions
The last is whether to include one at all.
edit Name the destination
crop_free Within reach
open_in_new What happens after the tap
block When not to
Two seconds, one thumb. Name the destination and put the card where a thumb already is.
settings Adding one
- Compose the story first The link goes on top of something worth watching.
- Add the link sticker And paste the exact page, not the homepage.
- Write two or three words Naming what is on the other side.
- Place it lower-middle Clear of the story controls and the reply box.
- Make it big enough to aim at A tap meant for it should not skip the story.
- Leave it off most stories So the ones with links mean something.
This page puts one link on a story. The curriculum step is measuring it: separate addresses for separate places, tracking where people actually came from, and telling a promotion that worked from one that merely happened.
At a glance
- 1Story links
Add a tappable link to a story.
- 2Clear label
Say where it goes so people tap it.
- 3Thumb reach
Place it near the bottom centre.
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