A new Instagram feature will allow people to ask questions about other people's Stories, though the Facebook-owned app isn't telling anyone about it.
The photo-sharing app is yet to formally announce the new feature, however users from as far and wide as Indonesia and Italy have reported being able to make use of it.
Reports of the question-asking feature first surfaced on Android Police, which noted that open-ended questions had been added for some users alongside the existing yes/no polls and emoji sliders.
Those features had been added as a way of encouraging people to interact with other users' stories. But they also serve as a useful way of telling who pays attention to them, since anyone can see who has voted on their posts.
The latest feature comes less than a week after Instagram began rolling out a new lightweight version of its app called Instagram Lite.
The new Android app is just 1/55th of the size of the regular Instagram app and is aimed at users in emerging markets who may have limited data or storage space on their device.
Like with the new Stories feature, there was no major announcement for the launch of Instagram Lite and no details given on when a wider launch can be expected.
Another update to the feature appears to pin the Stories bar to the top of a person's news feed, meaning it will be almost impossible to ignore friends' Stories. Instagram did not respond to a request for comment on either feature.
Both new Stories features come amid a spree of announcements for Instagram, which have included the introduction of group video chat, Story soundtracks and IGTV – a devoted video app the firm calls its "most exciting feature to date."
IGTV offers a place for users to enjoy longer content from celebrities like Kim Kardashian West and Selena Gomez.
The recent developments play into Instagram's combined strategy of keeping people hooked to the app while simultaneously growing its massive user base, which currently stands at over a billion people worldwide.
