Skip to main content

Now you can view Instagram Stories on the web thanks to a new Chrome extension

Whether you consider it a fun new feature or a shameless Snapchat rip-off (or quite possibly both), Instagram Stories looks set to stay.

Arriving on Instagram’s mobile app at the start of this month, Stories lets you create and share a collection of photos and videos showing “moments of your day.” And after 24 hours, the content disappears.

Recommended Videos

Now, if you’re the kind of person that likes to sometimes kick back and explore Instagram via your laptop or desktop, you’ll have noticed that the Stories feature doesn’t show up.

It’s not clear whether team Instagram has any plans to bring Stories to the web version of its service, though if it does, its track record when it comes to showing love to its web app suggests we could be in for a long wait.

But hold on, there’s some good news to report. Thanks to the excellent work of California-based Android software engineer Alex Garcia, you can now get Stories for web by downloading his recently created Chrome extension called, appropriately enough, “Chrome IG Story.”

Yes, you’ll have to install Google’s Chrome browser if you haven’t already done so, but the inconvenience (should you find such a step an inconvenience) is surely a small price to pay if you’ve been enjoying your friends’ Stories on the mobile app and desire the same experience for the bigger screen.

instagram stories extension
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Once you have the extension up and running, you’ll see your friends’ available Stories located at the top of your feed on the Instagram website in the same way that the feature appears in the smartphone app. Then it’s simply a case of clicking the icon of the user whose Story you want to view.

The arrow keys let you jump back and forth, while the ‘esc’ key takes you out of the gallery altogether. Oh, and here’s another thing. A right click on the icon of any user posting a Story lets you download all of its content. “All the photos and videos on that user’s Story will be zipped up and the download will start,” Garcia says in a post. So any Instagrammers posting risqué stuff to Stories in the belief that it’s going to vanish the following day, take note. When it comes to the web, even vanishing content tends not to vanish.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Want to design your own smartphone? Thanks to Nothing, now you can
The Nothing Phone 2a face down on a table.

The Nothing Phone 2a launched earlier this month to quite positive reviews. If you're in the market for a budget Android phone that looks good, performs well, and has a solid camera, it's one of the better options available. Now, Nothing is inviting you to help it design a new version of the phone.

On March 20, Nothing uploaded a video to its YouTube channel announcing the company's "Community Edition Project." In short, it's a new initiative from Nothing that's giving you the opportunity to design a brand new version of the Phone 2a.

Read more
Instagram used to be one of my favorite apps — now I can’t stand it
A Galaxy S23 Ultra running Instagram. On the screen, there's an orange guitar.

Instagram is dying a slow, drawn-out death, and I don't think that I'm the only one to notice. The app has been at the center of controversy after controversy as Meta continuously shifts around its ambitions for it, tries to compete with other social media giants like TikTok, and packs itself full to bursting with suggested posts and a relentless number of advertisements. It feels like Meta is doing its best in order to maximize profits and draw users in, but from everyone I've talked to who feels the same as I do, we're only being pushed away.

As it's desperately tried to find a new identity, Instagram has become completely useless to me. It's an app full of content I don't care about that's plastered floor-to-ceiling with ads that have me closing it each time — feeling frustrated and that I might as well delete it to save myself some time and storage space.
Remembering what Instagram used to be

Read more
If you can’t stand ads on Instagram, you’re going to hate this update
Samsung Galaxy S23 showing Instagram

Instagram has been ruffling the feathers of many users as of late with how many ads and suggested posts it shows from unfollowed accounts. Despite the frequent criticism of the app's near-constant ads, Meta announced in a recent blog post that Instagram will now feature an additional two new types of ads to clutter the feeds of all users.

One place where Instagram remained relatively ad-free was in the search results, as the app devoted that space entirely to directing people to the photos, reels, or other users that you're looking for. Now, users can expect to see ads popping up in the search results — making the results a little more padded and a little less helpful.

Read more