Submitted by Frank Macey on
Instagram continues to expand the Explore tab, giving users new ways to find interesting content. According to the Instagram blog, the latest update brings location and hashtag Stories to the section. The change is one of many that Instagram has rolled out over the past five years since the Explore tab first launched.
Location stories highlight what's happening close by, showing real-time content from people who are using location stickers on their Stories. Users can also open the Explore tab and search for a location, which will display a story ring for that place directly on the location page. Similarly, hashtag stories can be found by searching for a specific hashtag. This feature is currently rolling out worldwide.
Note that Instagram users who use a hashtag on their Stories may be included in the Explore tab for others to see. This also applies to your Stories with a location sticker. To opt out of the new section, and prevent your Stories from appearing in the Explore tab, use the X on the stories viewer.
Instagram Stories launched in August 2016, giving users a way to share photos and videos throughout the day without clogging their feed or profile grid. Content shared with Stories automatically disappears after 24 hours.
Instagram can be found free on iTunes and requires iOS 8.0 or later and 105 MB of storage to install.