how to make feature story on facebook

A Complete Guide to Master Facebook Stories

Know the secrets of Facebook Stories with essential tips like maximizing vertical content and crafting engaging CTAs to make your brand stand out and increase audience engagement.

Stories are the future content of social media.

Don’t believe us?

Here’s what Mark Zuckerberg stated in 2018,

“Stories are a huge part of the future of video content and sharing. This is the reason we’re all in with it across our networks.”

The consumption of stories has increased by a whopping 842% since 2016.

From Snapchat to LinkedIn, stories have been adopted by most of the top social media platforms, if not all. And Facebook Stories is also the result of the boom.

Facebook Stories are being used by over 500 million people daily.

Facebook Stories is a great feature for brands to boost their engagement rate and drive desired business outcomes.

If you have just created a Facebook business page and are wondering how to use Facebook stories to notch up your creative content strategy, we’ve got you covered.

This guide sheds light on how to use Facebook Stories, how to master the art of story creation on Facebook, and more.

Timing is everything for a story.

Post your Facebook Stories with SocialPilot at the perfect time and make them matter.

What Is a Facebook Story?

Only someone who has been living under a rock would ask, “what is a Facebook Story?” Still, we’ll give you the basic definition.

Facebook Stories are fleeting videos or images that can engage the viewer with their different elements. It has an immersive and visual appeal that helps attract audiences towards a brand.

Being a new addition to Facebook’s arsenal, Facebook Stories have a greater impact and reach if you compare it to other content forms on Facebook.

But Facebook Stories don’t last on your Facebook page as long as you want, compared to other forms of content posts on Facebook.

So, how long do Facebook Stories last?

Great question. Like any other stories on different social media platforms, Facebook Stories disappear within 24 hours . However, a viewer can take a screenshot or view it in the highlights after 24 hours.

Facebook Stories are visible right above Facebook’s feed both in the mobile app and desktop version. You can also post and view a Facebook Story on the Messenger platform.

With the changing user behavior, the viewers’ attention is decreasing, and stories are a great way to spread a brand’s message concisely and crisply.

But how long are Facebook Stories supposed to be?

Let’s understand what’s the default length and size of Facebook Stories.

1. Facebook Stories Length

The core idea behind Facebook Stories is to attract the user’s attention throughout the viewing experience. More attention from the user makes it easier for a business to channel the audience towards taking a specific action or express the message more effectively.

A single-story card has a default video length of 20 seconds , and it is reduced to 5 seconds for images. Your Facebook Story ad will also last up to 15 seconds .

If your content exceeds the limits, then Facebook will automatically bifurcate the content length into multiple story cards for a better viewing experience.

A viewer can tap around your story to switch the story cards whenever they want to. Or they can swipe up or click any CTA on your story to jump onto your desired location.

2. Facebook Stories Size

Before you get to know just how to create a Story on FB, you need to know some important details. Ideally, Facebook Stories size is compatible with all smartphones to fit the entire screen. The resolution is at least 1080×1080 pixels for both video and image content. If we talk about aspect ratios, then 9:16 and 1.91:1 both are supported.

If you want to place a Facebook Story ad, then logo and text placement are highly important. You need to leave 250 pixels or 14% space from the top and bottom of story visuals.

You can limit the text length of your story when you are about to place an advertisement. Check all the vital measures to ensure that your ad gets approved the first time.

Now that we are clear with the basics about Facebook Stories let’s jump onto the actual use and implementation of Facebook for your business.

How to Use Facebook Stories?

When it comes to Facebook Stories, you have two options to use this amazing feature. You can either schedule Facebook Stories using a third-party tool or post them regularly by yourself. You can also go with inorganic methods like Facebook Ads.

In both scenarios, you need to be effective and uniquely represent your brand image. You need to highlight your product and services in a way that people get allured to experiencing them.

You can also be a little informal with your stories compared to any other content format on Facebook to add an extra element to make the audience glued to your stories.

Also, if a user views a lot of your stories, your stories will be ranked in the initial phase of the story queue, making it easier for your brand to solidify your brand presence.

Stories can also be used to ask what the users think about any topic. You can also add polls to keep your audience engaged with your brand regularly.

Now the question arises: how to create engaging and impactful stories for your brand?

Let’s check out the simple steps.

How to Create Facebook Stories?

Before creating Facebook Stories for your business page, you need to have an editor or admin access to post a Facebook Story.

To use the ‘Story’ feature in the Facebook customization tab, follow these steps:

Step 1: Access the Story Feature

When you are in the Facebook customization tab, look for the options ‘Post’, ‘Reel’, and ‘Story’. Select the ‘Story’ option to proceed with creating a Facebook story.

Step 2: Utilize Available Options in Story Mode

Once you switch to the ‘Story’ option, note that the text editor box will be disabled.

You will have access to the following options:

• Add Media: Choose to upload your own media files.
• Design on Canva: Use Canva for creative designs and export to SocialPilot Content Library.
• Add Media from External Sources: Import media from other online platforms.
• Add Post from Library: Select previously saved or created content from your library.

Step 3: Selecting Media for Your Story

You can choose an image or video for your story from various sources, such as:

• Your device’s file system.
• Cloud storage services like Google Drive, Box, or Dropbox.
• External sources through an integrated media option.
• Understanding Media File Selection for Stories:

After selecting a media file under the ‘Story’ option, you will see a label stating:

“Facebook pages support the publishing of stories (single image or video) without captions.” This is to remind you that Facebook stories are published without text captions.

Step 4: Editing Images for the Story

In the ‘Story’ option, you can edit your selected images using the available image editor. Look for the image editor icon on the selected image and use it to make necessary edits.

By following these steps, you can effectively create and customize stories for your Facebook page using the new features in the Facebook customization tab.

Tips & Tricks for Facebook Stories

1. go vertical.

As most of the audience who view your story use their devices vertically, try to create or choose a vertical story content.

Approximately 90% of the audience hold their phones vertical while viewing Facebook Stories.

It will be easy for the viewer to see the content without making any tweaks to their devices.

2. Create a Content Calendar

Being a business page, you need to provide and engage with your audience consistently. So try to plan out your next 6 months’ story content beforehand.

Create a content calendar and brainstorm different story ideas so that you can set a consistent flow of content and even polish your content afterward.

Planning your content will help you save time and energy every time you post a story. You don’t need to work from scratch if you have created your story ideas.

Facebook doesn’t provide you with a content calendar tool, but you can use advanced third-party tools like SocialPilot to create and maintain your social media content calendar.

3. Effective Use of Templates

Create your brand’s unique design to represent your tone and image. Use a consistent template for your posts so that people can recognize your brand from that template.

You also can use your customized templates in your ads which you can run across Facebook networks. It will save you all the designing time and also set a consistent rhythm to your posts.

4. Make Use of Captions

Sometimes, you might have a video message, but not everyone has turned on their sound audio; you need to grab their attention before tapping on towards the next story.

Adding captions gives a brief detail about what the viewer can expect from the story.

You can add text descriptions to your image stories to create an impact and convey the message you want.

5. The Powerful CTA

You can add specific links to your landing pages, websites, or other social media handles to channel your audience via Facebook Stories.

You can also add any available CTA like Contact Us, Shop Now, Sign Up, Subscribe to achieve your desired business outcome.

Follow these tips to boost up the effectiveness of your Facebook Stories and to extract the desired outcomes.

Facebook Stories are a quick and effective way to attract an audience to your brand. You can add stories to your marketing campaign and strengthen your approach towards achieving your desired business goals.

Use all the learnings from our guide and implement them to stand apart from the rest of your competitors.

If you need to solidify your overall Facebook campaign, then you can make use of SocialPilot to handle your content scheduling, publishing and analytics.

It’s not limited to Facebook. In fact, you can boost your social media presence as SocialPilot can be used for all the top social media platforms.

Still, thinking?

Try out its free 14-day trial to experience the best of social media management.

Frequently Asked Questions

🌟 How to download Facebook Stories?

Facebook doesn't allow you to download a Facebook story. You can save your Facebook story to your camera roll, but if you want to download someone else's story, you need to use a third-party application for that purpose.

🌟 Can we edit our Facebook story once published?

You cannot make specific changes to your story once you have uploaded it, but you can delete, save, or send it to people once you have posted your story on Facebook.

🌟 Why am I not able to create my story on my mobile phone?

You might have a technical glitch on your app, or the phone might have a previous Facebook app version. You can uninstall the application and download it again after deleting all the cache and storage information in your mobile settings to make things work for you.

🌟 Can I check how many times my Facebook Story was viewed?

No, you can’t check that. Facebook provides you analytics of who viewed your story. There are no metrics that dictate how many times a person viewed a story.

🌟 What does the Facebook algorithm notice to place a story in front of the queue?

Facebook analyzes the interests of a specific viewer and the timings of the stories to create a queue in a user’s profile. If you want your story to be the first one your audience views, you need to keep in check the timings and the quality of your stories.

About the Author

Jimit Bagadiya

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A Guide to Facebook Stories and How to Use Them

What are Facebook stories?

Why you should be using facebook stories right now, your facebook stories how-to guide, answering your faqs, plann’ing for facebook.

Ready to level-up your Facebook strategy? Here’s our complete guide to using Facebook Stories.

Drag and drop posts in bulk and schedule straight to Facebook.

Setting up a Facebook business page

Planning content for stories

Creating Facebook stories 

Using Facebook story features

Publishing your Facebook story

Checking your story stats

Does Facebook show who viewed your story?

How do you add music to a facebook story , how do you delete a story on facebook, does facebook notify users when you screenshot their story, how do you access the facebook story archive.

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Author:  Shannon Jade

Shannon Jade is an author, editor, and marketer currently based in Melbourne, Australia. She holds a BA in creative writing, professional writing, and publishing and is always working on her next story. When she’s not writing, Shannon can usually be found reading a book, drinking a cup of tea, or talking about books on social media.

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How to Use Facebook Stories for Business: The Complete Guide

Create fun, authentic connections with potential customers and clients by using Facebook stories for business.

From swapping faces on Snapchat to sharing water cooler moments on LinkedIn , Stories have made their mark on most, if not all, of today’s leading social platforms. Facebook Stories is no exception.

The visual, immersive appeal of Stories has won over a wide range of demographics, including those who continue to use Facebook as one of their go-to social media channels. The platform remains a powerhouse when it comes to building and maintaining relationships, with no signs of slowing down.

Approximately 500 million people are using Facebook Stories daily . It’s pretty clear that despite the ephemeral nature of Stories, they provide lasting impact. And, they’ve been shown to be just as good at driving brand lift as Facebook feeds and Instagram Stories.

After viewing a business’ Story, 58% of people say they’ve browsed a brand’s website , 50% say they’ve visited a website to buy a product or service and 31% headed to a store to scope things out.

Whether you’ve just created your first Facebook Page or are looking to add a little more sparkle to your Stories, we’ve got you covered with our guide on how to use Facebook Stories for business.

Table of Contents

Get your free pack of 72 customizable Instagram Stories templates now . Save time and look professional while promoting your brand in style.

What are Facebook Stories?

Just like Instagram Stories , Facebook Stories are fleeting images or videos designed to disappear after 24 hours (although users can screenshot a Facebook Story or view Story highlights to refer to them later).

Stories can be found above Facebook’s news feed, both on desktop and in the app. They can also be posted and watched on the Messenger app.

Back in the early 2000s when Facebook was first created, users made real-time updates sharing passing thoughts and what was on the dinner table that night. While food photos still reign supreme on many social apps (such as Instagram), many people now turn to Facebook to share larger, momentous updates , or their own personal highlights, with friends and family.

Facebook Stories give an opportunity to go “old school” again and post fun, authentic moments as they happen throughout the day.

Facebook Stories have also become an increasingly attractive way for business owners to connect with their customers. Since Facebook refocused its ranking system to prioritize friends and family in the news feed section, some businesses saw their reach, video watch time and referral traffic go down.

Stories can be another opportunity for businesses to get eyeballs on their content, especially because they take up prime real estate on both the website and mobile app.

Source: Facebook

Facebook Stories size

Facebook Stories are sized to fill up your entire phone screen, and call for a resolution of at least 1080 x 1080 pixels, for images and videos alike. Ratios from 1.91:1 to 9:16 are supported.

Text and logo placement is equally important. Make sure to leave about 14% or 250 pixels of space at the top and bottom of your visuals. No one wants to discover late in the game that their captivating copy is covered by a call-to-action or their profile info.

Facebook Stories length

Stories on Facebook are short and sweet for a reason. They’re designed to keep your viewers engaged throughout the experience.

The video length of a Facebook Story runs for 20 seconds and a photo lasts for five seconds. When it comes to video ads, Facebook will play Stories for 15 seconds or less . If they run longer, they’ll be split into separate Stories cards. Facebook will show one, two or three cards automatically. After that, viewers will need to tap Keep Watching to continue playing the ad.

How to use Facebook Stories for business

Facebook Stories are a great tool for humanizing your brand and showing your customers what’s behind the curtain when it comes to your business.

When you run a Facebook Business Page, you have two options for posting Stories: either organically, just like you would on a personal account, or through paid ads . Either way, you’ll want to show the personality behind your business, and the products and services that you offer.

Stories are an opportunity to loosen your collar, as they say, and be a little more informal with your communications. Your audience isn’t expecting a polished visual masterpiece. In fact, about 52% of consumers say they want to watch Stories that are brief and easy to understand.

When it comes to drumming up ideas for business Stories, keep in mind that 50% of Facebook users want to explore new products and 46% are keen to hear your tips or advice.

How to make Facebook Stories

To post a Facebook Story from a business Page, you must have admin or editor access. Unlike Instagram, Facebook lets you post Stories from your desktop, but the features are a bit more simple and only allow you to play around with image and text. To make your Stories more lively and get the most out of Facebook’s Story features, try posting from the Facebook app.

• Log into the Facebook app (iOS or Android) and tap on your profile picture
• Tap Create Story
• Select a photo or video from your camera roll or tap the camera icon to create a visual of your own

From here, you can play around with Boomerang to make images flip forward and backwards or Music to add sweet tunes to your Stories. You can also add some more flavor to photos or videos with filters, stickers, text and doodling options, and special effects.

How to check your Facebook Story views

After creating your Facebook Story, the next thing you’ll want to do is check out your Facebook Story views.

To do this, you’ll need to:

• Click on your Facebook Story
• Select the eye symbol on the bottom left-hand side of the screen.

From there, you can see a list of who has watched your Story.

If you want to explore even more data, turn on Story Insights by clicking on Page , then Insights , then Stories .

These metrics include:

• Unique opens: The number of unique people who have watched one or more of your active stories within the past 28 days. New data is provided on a daily basis.
• Engagements: All of your interactions within your Stories from the past 28 days. These include replies, reactions, sticker interactions, swipe ups, profile taps and shares.
• Stories published: Your business’ total amount of Stories published by your designated Facebook administrators over the past 28 days. This excludes active stories.
• Age and gender: With enough viewers, you can see how your audience shakes up by gender and age range.
• Location: The cities and countries where your viewers are currently located. Like age and gender, this data won’t be shown if your audience is too small.

If you have money in your budget for advertising, you can create campaigns with Stories. Facebook’s Ads Manager allows you to track how many people complete a desired action, i.e., whether they convert.

How to add music to Facebook Stories

When it comes to Facebook Stories, silence isn’t always golden. One Facebook study found that 80% of Stories that included a voice-over or music created better bottom-of-the-funnel results than soundless ads.

Music is also an excellent tool for evoking emotion and memories. With Facebook, you can curate a soundtrack to your favourite moments just by adding music.

Here’s how to add music to your visuals:

• On your app’s homepage, look to the head of your News Feed and tap + Add to Page’s Story .
• Take a photo or video, or choose an existing one from your camera roll.
• Press the sticker icon then tap Music .
• Choose a song to capture the mood of your Story. Select a song with the label Lyrics if you want them to appear on the Story.
• Use the slider to pick the exact clip you want to play.
• Finally, tap to select your display style and then press share.

How to use Facebook Story highlights

The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nature of Stories has changed with the introduction of Facebook Story highlights, collections of Stories you can pin to the top of your Page. Now, you can keep your Stories around beyond 24-hours so that you and your audience can revisit them whenever.

• Tap your profile picture
• Scroll down to Story Highlights and press Add New
• Choose the Stories you want to feature and tap Next
• Give your highlights a title or adjust your audience by tapping the Facebook Story settings icon, which looks like a gear

You also have the option to make your Stories last longer by turning on the Facebook Story archive feature.

From your mobile browser:

• Look to the top of your News Feed for Stories
• Tap Your Archive
• Select settings
• Choose Turn On or Turn Off to enable or disable the archive

Keep in mind that once you delete a visual, it’s gone for good, and you won’t be able to save it to your archive.

Facebook Stories tips and tricks

Shoot vertically.

The vast majority of people hold their phones vertically. As tempting as it is to shoot horizontally, landscape-style, these images won’t be as quick and easy to view.

In fact, studies show that people hold their phones vertically about 90% of the time . Meet your customers where they are by having your videos mirror how they hold their phones.

One way to make Facebook Stories a priority for your business is to create a content calendar . Creating Stories on the fly can be great for updating audiences on live events as they happen, but spur-of-the-moment posts can also include more mistakes.

Planning ahead gives you more time to brainstorm, create and polish content that shines. It also keeps you accountable when it comes to posting on a regular schedule.

Just remember that your content shouldn’t be set in stone. If online conversations all turn to a tragedy in the news, it can seem a little out of touch to focus on self-promotion. Don’t be afraid to make changes to your plan as needed.

And, if you need to know how to delete a story on Facebook that’s already gone live, you can click the three dots on the top right of your story for the delete button.

Use templates

Not everyone has a strong eye for design. Not to worry — you can use templates to help convey your brand’s vibe, whether that’s minimalistic, a retro aesthetic, or a complete mishmash of ideas.

You can use free templates from companies such as Adobe Spark — or Hootsuite. Our creative team put together a collection of 20 free stories templates you can use to create engaging and visually stunning content.

You also have the option to use Facebook’s own Story templates for ads that can be used across Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. Just pick a template after creating an in Ads Manager and customize as needed.

Below is an example of a final post on Instagram, but both platforms share a similar interface when it comes to Stories.

Add Captions

The future is accessible. You want to make sure you’re creating content that all audiences can enjoy. Likewise, many people watch Stories with their phone on silent. They may miss your messaging if you don’t add captions.

Currently, Facebook doesn’t have an auto-generated captions option for Stories. But there are video editing apps out there that can sync text with your voice, such as Clipomatic or Apple Clips, if you don’t want to add it in manually.

Include a CTA

Stories can do more for your business than help create a pretty picture. By including a call-to-action (CTA) in your posts, you can inspire audiences to visit your blog, purchase a product, pick up the phone and more.

Wondering how to add a link to your Facebook Story to encourage action?

If you’re looking to measure brand awareness, reach or video views, you can select Add a website URL in Ads Manager and then pick your CTA from the dropdown menu. These will pop up at the bottom of your Story.

Available call-to-actions on Facebook Stories include “Shop Now,” “Contact Us,” “Subscribe,” Sign Up” and more. All Facebook business Pages have the option to use CTAs, regardless of their follower count.

For instance, Overstock uses a CTA at the end of their Story to encourage potential customers to jump on their next furniture purchase.

Manage your Facebook presence alongside your other social media channels using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard, you can schedule posts, share video, engage your audience, and measure the impact of your efforts. Try it free today.

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Leah Golob is a Toronto-based freelance journalist, content marketing writer and editor. Learn more about her work at LeahGolob.com.

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How to Create a Facebook Story on a PC, iPhone, or Android

Dave Johnson Dave Johnson is a dedicated writer with a strong focus on the ever-evolving social media landscape. Leveraging his comprehensive understanding of these platforms, he breaks down the complexities of social media apps to provide engaging and insightful content. Read more May 27, 2022

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Users have been able to post Facebook Stories since 2017, just as this option gained popularity on Instagram. A Facebook Story is a photo or video collection users can post publicly or direct message a friend.

The Story is live for 24 hours, after which it disappears, making it perfect for everyday posting. But if you have never posted a Facebook Story before, you might not be sure where to start.

Fortunately, the process is pretty user-friendly and intuitive, and we’ll show you how it works from your computer and Facebook mobile apps.

How to Create a Facebook Story With Multiple Pictures

Facebook Stories have a prominent location on the Facebook feed as they sit right at the very top. When a Facebook user launches the app or the platform’s web version, Stories are the first to catch their eye.

So, it’s no surprise that many users try to make them as engaging as possible and often upload multiple pictures to one Story.

To create a Facebook Story with multiple pictures, follow the steps outlined below.

Unlike Instagram, Facebook lets you create stories using a web browser, albeit with some limitations. Still, if you prefer using Facebook from your computer, here’s what to do:

The photo you’ve selected will instantly be published to your Facebook Story. However, to add more than one photo here’s what you should do:

You can repeat the process as many times as necessary to create a perfect sequence of pictures on your Facebook Story.

If you’re an iPhone user, posting a story with one or multiple photos is essentially similar to posting from a PC, but you get a few more editing options. Follow these steps to see how it works:

The first photo you’ve selected is automatically published, and your next move is to add more pictures. You can do that if you:

If you want to add more than one photo to a single story, that’s also an option for iPhone users. Here’s what you should do:

Facebook Android app works pretty much the same way as the iOS app. So, the process of adding multiple pictures is also relatively straightforward.

You have two options, and one is adding multiple photos that can be viewed consecutively on your Feed. But you need to start with a single image first.

Here are all the steps you need to take:

The Facebook story will go up immediately, and now you can continue adding more photos:

You can use the same steps to add even more photos to this Story session on Facebook.

The other option for adding multiple photos to a Facebook story is to add several pictures on a single Story slide. It’s a super simple process; just follow these steps:

• Choose another photo and resize it.

This option allows you to create a quick and effective collage and showcase a few pictures to your friends without them having to watch the entire Facebook Story slide.

How to Create a Facebook Story With Music

Facebook Stories are often much better with music. You can pick a photo or video, add the right song and create a great post others will appreciate.

However, if you haven’t created a Facebook Story with music before, it might seem like an overly complicated task. On the contrary, it’s an incredibly easy process.

Unfortunately, if you want to add music to your Facebook Story from a PC, that will not work.

As mentioned, even though you can post Stories from your computer, the customization options are not available, including adding music.

Therefore, if you’re determined to add some tunes to your new Facebook Story, you’ll need to do it from a Facebook mobile app.

Have you captured a video of your pet doing something cute or snapped a perfectly serene nature photo? If yes, it should definitely go on your Facebook Story with some carefully selected music. For iPhone users, that process looks like this:

That is all there is to it. But did you know that you can create a Facebook Story with only music and not include any photos or videos? The Music Story focuses only on the song, not the image. Here’s how to create it:

• Slide the “Lyrics” bar to find which part of the lyrics will appear on your Facebook Story.
• Tap “Done.”

Android users have the same options available, and adding music to Facebook Stories is as straightforward as it gets. To get a clear idea of how that works, let’s go over all the steps:

• Select which portion of the song’s lyrics will be heard in your Story.

Now all you have to do is wait for feedback from your Facebook friends.

Also, did you know that you can add music to a photo or video on your Facebook Story? It’s an excellent way to highlight any imagery. Here’s how that works:

• If song lyrics are available, move the “Lyrics” slider to choose which part of the song appears on the Story.

Voila, you’re all set.

How to Create a Facebook Story Poll

If you’re looking for a way to increase engagement on your Facebook stories, consider adding a poll. With a little bit of creativity, polls can help you connect and even have a little fun.

Are you not sure about an outfit you’re planning to wear? Create a Facebook Story poll. Can’t decide which book to read next? Create a poll with your top two options.

The possibilities are endless, but if you’ve never tried creating a poll before, here’s everything you need to know.

Again, this feature is not available for users posting Facebook Stories on their computers. Instead, if you want to create and customize a Facebook Story poll, you’ll need to access your Facebook mobile app.

If you’re an iPhone user, creating a Facebook Story poll requires only a few taps on the screen. Follow these steps to make a fun poll on your Facebook Story:

• From the Facebook Story types, select “Poll.”

This option works fantastically if you have a question for your Facebook friends and followers but don’t need to include a photo or video. Another option is to create a Story with an image and:

If you want to create a Facebook Story poll using an Android device, we’ll guide you through all the steps. First, let’s see how you can utilize the designated “Poll” feature to see how your Facebook friends feel about a particular topic, for example.

• Choose “Poll” from the list of options.

If the poll is accompanying a photo or video Facebook Story, you need to find the poll sticker:

How to Create a Facebook Story on a Business Page

If you’re running your own business with a dedicated Facebook Page, you can utilize Stories to run promotions and keep customers up-to-date about the company.

It’s essential to keep in mind that you can create the Stories as long as you are the Page’s official admin or editor. Now, let’s get to the details of this process.

You might find it convenient to post Facebook Stories for your business from the computer, but unfortunately, the platform doesn’t support this option.

While you share post photos and videos from the computer on your personal Facebook profile, that won’t work on the Business Pages. Instead, you’ll need to use an iPhone or Android smartphone.

To post a Story from your Facebook Business Page, reach for your iPhone and follow these steps:

• Open Facebook and select your Business Page.

Your Facebook Story be published instantly to your Business Page.

With the Facebook mobile app for Android, the steps for posting a Story on Facebook Business Page are mostly the same. Here’s what you should do:

• Select the Business Page from your Feed.

Your Facebook Business Page Story will be active within seconds.

Using Facebook Stories to Your Advantage

If you have been using Facebook since it first came out, you’ve seen so many changes and upgrades over the years. The platform is now vastly different from where it started and resembles Instagram more each day.

The Facebook Story feature is the best example of that. It’s no wonder, though, as the majority of users look at the Facebook Stories first before scrolling down the Feed.

Therefore, learning how to post multiple pictures, add music, create polls, and post stories on your Business Page can be incredibly useful.

Many Facebook creators, and even casual users, rely on Facebook Stories to get their message across effectively every day, and now you know precisely how to do it too.

What is your favorite Facebook Story template? Would you add music to every Story? Let us know in the comments section below.

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How to use Facebook Stories

It would appear that nearly every social network has released a ‘stories’ feature , allowing users to post snippets of their lives that disappear after a set time, such as 24 hours. Similar to the feature found within Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat, Facebook Stories lives at the top of your feed as a series of circles; click on one to see content posted from your friends and family. Stories aren’t published to your profile forever; instead, they self-destruct, making them a great way to post thoughts and memories that you don’t need to live on forever.

Posting a Facebook Story (iOS/Android)

Posting a facebook story (web browser).

To learn more about using Facebook Stories, keep reading and become a social media pro. Just remember that while Facebook Stories disappear after 24 hours, anyone could screenshot the contents, so don’t post anything that you wouldn’t want the entire world to see. Check out our guide if you’re concerned about other Facebook privacy settings .

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The best way to post a Facebook Story is to do so from your smartphone or tablet that run either iOS or Android . To begin posting a story, users need to open the Facebook app. For detailed instructions, follow our steps below:

Step 1: With Facebook opened, ensure you are on the first tab, also known as the Home tab; you can check which tab is selected at the bottom of your screen.

Step 2: At the top of your feed, there will be a collection of other Facebook Stories as well as a button that says Create Story — click the button to create your post.

Step 3: On the Create Story screen, you will be given the option to craft several different types of stories; follow the sections below for the kind of Facebook Story you wish to create.

Photo or Video Story

A Photo or Video Story will allow you to post a piece of media from your camera roll.

Step 4: On the Create Story screen, your smartphone or tablet’s camera roll will be displayed on the lower half of the screen. Click on the piece of media you wish to post.

Step 5: In the upper-right corner of the screen, use the Stickers , Text , Draw , and Animate options to customize your post.

Step 6: If desired, press the Tag People button to tag friends and family in your post.

Step 7: When finished, press the Share to Story button.

A Text Story allows you to post a block of customizable text.

Step 4: On the Create Story screen, select the Text button at the top of your screen.

Step 5: Use your device’s keyboard to type out any text you wish to share.

Step 6: Click the circular button near the bottom of the text and select a background you wish to use. Once selected, press the (X) button to close the background selector.

Step 7: If you wish to change the text style, click the style button found to the right of the circular  button. With each click, your text will change to a different type.

Step 8: Once finished, press the Done button, then click Share to Story .

Music Story

A Music Story allows you to post a portion of a song along with lyrics.

Step 4: On the Create Story screen, select the Music button at the top of your screen.

Step 5: Tap on the song you wish to use; if not shown, use the Search Music bar at the top of the screen to seek out a specific selection.

Step 6: Once your music is selected, you can choose to use a photo or video from your camera roll as your background. If you wish to use a generic background, swipe down to dismiss the image/video selector.

Step 7: Click on the lyrics to customize them. When clicked, you can scroll back and forth within your song to find the portion you wish to play. Additionally, you can use the buttons above the song scroller to select the style of the lyrics. When finished, click the Done button in the upper-right corner.

Step 8: In the upper-right corner of the screen, use the Stickers , Text , and Draw buttons to customize your post.

Step 9: Select the Beat Style , or disable it altogether, using the buttons at the bottom of the post. Options include Circle , Heart , and Square .

Step 10: Once finished, click Share to Story .

Boomerang Story

A Boomerang Story allows you to post a short video clip that automatically rewinds and fast forwards itself when played back.

Step 4: On the Create Story screen, select the Boomerang button at the top of your screen.

Step 5: If desired, select an effect at the bottom of the screen.

Step 6: Hold down the circular button in the bottom-center of the screen to record; release it when you are finished — you will have a limited amount of time.

Step 7: In the upper-right corner of the screen, use the Stickers , Text , Draw , and Animate options to customize your post.

Step 8: If desired, press the Tag People button to tag friends and family in your post.

Step 9: When finished, press the Share to Story button.

The Mood Story allows you to post a GIF.

Step 4: On the Create Story screen, select the Mood button at the top of your screen.

Step 5: Tap on the GIF you wish to use; if not shown, use the Search GIFs bar at the top of the screen to seek a specific choice.

Step 6: Tap on the GIF if you wish to change the framing style.

Step 7: In the upper-right corner of the screen, use the Stickers , Text , and Draw buttons to customize your post.

Step 8: When finished, press the Share to Story button.

Selfie Story

The Selfie Story allows you to directly post a photo or video from your front-facing or rear-facing camera.

Step 4: On the Create Story screen, select the Selfie button at the top of your screen.

Step 5: If desired, select a filter at the bottom of the screen.

Step 6: Hold down the circular button in the screen’s bottom-center to record or tap it once to take a photo. For videos, release it when you are finished — you will have a limited amount of time.

The Poll Story allows you to ask your friends on Facebook a question and have them respond with one of two answers.

Step 4: On the Create Story screen, select the Poll button at the top of your screen.

Step 5: Using your keyboard, enter the question you wish to ask.

Step 6: Tap on the Yes or No option to modify it; when selected, use your keyboard to enter a new choice. If you do not change these options, they will remain as Yes and No.

Step 7: Use the Background Selector at the top of the screen to choose a background.

Another way to post a Facebook Story is to do so from within your web browser. The Facebook website is limited, however, and can only post either photo or text story. If you wish to do so, follow these steps from within your favorite web browser:

Step 1: Visit Facebook.com and login to your account.

Step 2: At the top of your News Feed , where your friend’s Stories are displayed, click on the Create Story button.

Step 3: Click either Create a Photo Story or Create a Text Story , then follow the step below for the type of Facebook Story you wish to create.

Photo Story

A Photo Story will allow you to post a photograph or image from your device.

Step 4: If you select Create a Photo Story , you will be asked to choose a photo from your device to post.

Step 5: Once chosen, you can click on the photo to crop or rotate it using your mouse.

Step 6: If you wish to add text to your photo, click the Add Text button on the left side of the webpage, then begin typing. Using the pop-up box, you can change the text font or alter the color.

A text story allows you to post a block of customizable text.

Step 4: On the left side of the webpage, type your text within the Text box.

Step 5: If desired, select the background and font type.

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The ultimate guide to using Facebook stories for business

Written by by Jacqueline Zote

Published on  April 13, 2021

Reading time  5 minutes

It goes without saying that the social media landscape evolves quickly. Before we know it, new trends emerge along with their accompanying hashtags and new topics take over our conversations. Similarly, new social media features soon become something we “can’t live without.”

The same is true for Facebook stories, which was introduced in 2016 and has turned into a vital feature. For social marketers who want to get in on the action, it’s all about adapting to the latest changes and implementing the newest features into your marketing strategy .

So if you plan on using Facebook Stories for marketing, this detailed guide explains what the feature is, why you should use it and how to use Facebook stories for business.

What are Facebook stories?

Facebook stories is a feature that lets you share content (be it photos, videos or even animation) that disappear after 24 hours.

Facebook stories from your friends and followed Pages appear at the top of your newsfeed. This applies to both the web version and the Facebook app.

Why Facebook stories matter for your business

So why use Facebook stories for business? What’s the benefit?

We know the Facebook algorithm can be a little tricky for gaining organic reach. But the good news is that stories are displayed prominently at the top of every newsfeed where people are likely to take notice.

The feature has seen significant adoption in recent years. About 500 million people now use Facebook stories every day, meaning it has the potential to help you reach a massive audience with the right strategies.

How to create Facebook story content

While you can create a story from the desktop app as well as Facebook Messenger, the regular Facebook mobile app offers the most robust options.

And since you’re interested in using Facebook stories for business, select the “+” button that appears on your Facebook Page profile picture and choose “Create story.” This will open up several options to create your Facebook story content.

Step 1. Choose the type of Facebook story content you want to create

When creating a Facebook story, you’ll have the option to choose from different types of content formats, or you can also choose to upload an existing photo or video from your gallery.

Facebook offers several different formats and tools for your stories content:

• Gallery – for sharing existing photos or videos on your phone.
• Boomerang – for taking a burst of photos and turning them into an animation.
• Text – for creating a text-based story.
• Layout – for posting multiple photos in different grids or collage configurations.
• Superzoom – for zooming in on a subject.
• Poll – for conducting viewer polls between two options.

The top row options and the blue camera icon in the bottom right corner give you two access points for those different story formats. However, when you click the blue camera icon, you can also take pictures or record videos, boomerangs or Facebook live videos.

Facebook story video length

Each Facebook story video can last up to 20 seconds. If you’re not sure what you can fit into this short timeframe, check out our tips on creating social media videos to get started.

Step 2. Get creative with your content

Now comes the fun part – customizing your Facebook story. Facebook offers plenty of creative tools to make your stories pop. So you can play around with these options before you finish creating your story. Find these fun add-ons on the right-hand column after you’ve selected an image file or taken a new picture or video.

• Stickers pulls up a library of fun stickers you can select to include in your stories, both animated and static. You can add music and GIFs to your story, share an event, conduct polls, ask questions, tag people and products, share your location and more.
• Text  can be added to your story as a closed captioning or to provide additional context. There are plenty of options to customize the text with different fonts, colors, styles and backgrounds.
• Draw or apply  effects to your stories too for a more whimsical addition. Draw freehand or use abstract effects as an overlay.
• Add animated effects to make your story such as bounce, slide, zoom in or out.

Step 3. Add custom links and buttons

What separates Facebook stories on profiles versus Pages is the ability to share links. So for those using Facebook stories for business, there are several links and buttons that are crucial for marketing.

By tapping the link icon on the right sidebar, you can choose from a few call-to-action buttons and customize them for viewers to interact with. Encourage people to book now, call, get directions, shop and much more.

Step 4. Share your Story

Once you’re satisfied with your creation, tap on “Share Now.” And that’s it – you’ve created and shared your Facebook story.

Best practices on how to use Facebook stories

While knowing the basics may be great, it’s not really enough if you want to get ahead of the competition. To get more out of your Facebook stories efforts, follow these best practices:

1. Create exciting, time-sensitive content

The “urgency factor” is what makes stories such a popular feature because of its 24-hour availability. Take advantage of this to create time-sensitive content that can build excitement and urgency.

Consider promoting a 24-hour sale with a code, share early bird offers, get people to sign up for an event and more.

2. Make it interactive and actionable

Because stories can draw in a large audience, create opportunities for engagement by using interactive tools like polls and voting stickers. See how PopSugar Fitness uses a poll in their story below:

Ask your audience questions or give them prompts to engage with. Don’t forget that if you’re creating a story for a Facebook Page, you can add custom links and buttons to drive more engagement.

3. Share third-party content in your stories

To diversify your Facebook content strategy, share relevant, third-party content that your audience might like. Share a post to your stories by clicking on the “Share” button next to a post.

4. Track your stories performance

Always keep an eye on how your Facebook stories posts are performing. What seems to be attracting more attention? What types of posts do people want to engage with? Do they drop off at a certain point if you post too many stories? Which post timings seem to drive the most views?

Observe all of these details to adjust and polish your Facebook stories strategy for a bigger impact. For a 360-degree view of your Facebook performance, combine these insights with your complete Facebook report in Sprout Social . Use this data to see how your Page is faring overall in terms of impressions, engagement, fan growth and so on.

Build better engagement with Stories

For brands that have been struggling to gain organic reach and engage their audience on Facebook, it’s time to embrace the power of Facebook stories. This guide provides you with the basics and best practices to use the feature, and now it’s time to put in the hard work. To level up your Facebook efforts even more, read out Facebook marketing strategy guide .

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Top 13 Facebook Stories Tips to Use it Like a Pro

Mehvish Mushtaq is a computer engineer by degree. Her love for Android and gadgets led her to develop the first Android app for Kashmir. Known as Dial Kashmir, she won the prestigious Nari Shakti award from the President of India. She has been writing about technology for 6+ years and her favorite categories include how-to guides, explainers, tips and tricks for Android, iOS/iPadOS, social media, and web apps.

Whether you like it or not, the Snapchat story feature is now available for almost all the leading social networks. Be it WhatsApp, Instagram, or Facebook. Unlike Instagram and WhatsApp, very few people actually use Facebook Stories .

Strangely, it is the easiest to use and comes with a bunch of features that are not available in others. All the features are clearly visible, unlike other media where you have to find the hidden features. If you are looking for the Instagram story hidden features, check this guide .

If you are a newbie to Facebook stories or you are contemplating on using them, in this post, we will talk about some Facebook stories tips and tricks to use it like a pro.

If you are a regular Facebook story user, these tips will further improve your experience. But before that, let’s give you a brief idea about how to use Facebook stories.

How to Use the Facebook Story Feature

Like other stories, Facebook stories also vanish after 24 hours. They can be accessed by tapping the camera icon in the top-left corner of the Facebook app. You can also access the story screen by swiping right on the home screen of the Facebook app.

The home screen of the story has many options. Here’s what every option means:

Facebook has two story modes – Normal and Type mode. In the Normal mode, you capture photos, then write or doodle on them. You can also add stickers. In the Type mode, you can only write the text and that too in one font only. You can, however, change the background color in the Type mode.

To create a normal story, you can capture a new photo or upload it from your gallery by tapping the Gallery icon. Once you have your photo, you will be taken to a new screen with the following options:

It’s up to your creativity now what you want to do with each story. You can doodle on it, add stickers and text to them. Once you are satisfied with your creation, tap the Your Story button at the bottom to upload it.

Once uploaded, it will appear on the home screen of all your friends in the stories section, which is present below the Create post area.

Then, once the story is live, you can also see who has viewed your story. To do so, tap Your Story icon on the home screen and look for the number of views at the bottom left. Tap the views to actually see the name of people who have seen your story. Every time someone views your story, a small dot will appear next to your story icon.

To help you improve your Facebook story experience, here are the tips and tricks. These also apply to Facebook Page stories.

1. Double Tap to Switch Camera

While the story screen has an icon to switch cameras, you can also double tap the screen to switch cameras instantly.

2. Use Live Filters and Effects

Facebook lets you add filters and effects twice. First, while creating a story and second, once you have captured an image or uploaded it from the gallery.

In the first case, the filters and effects are live. Meaning, you can try them. You can even add cute face filters while creating a new story. To add live face filters and effects to your Facebook story, tap the Effects icon in the bottom-left corner. Then tap any filter to apply it. The second method is mentioned in the next point.

3. Use Multiple Filters

If you aren’t satisfied with one filter, you can add multiple filters too. There are two ways to do this. The first method involves adding a live filter as mentioned above and then again tapping the Effects icon on the next screen. You will find more effects and filters here. Tap any filter to apply to it.

The second method lets you add more than two filters. To do so, save the Photo by tapping the Save icon once you have added a filter. The image will be saved in your gallery. Now go back and select the same image to upload it to your story. As you might have guessed, you can now apply more filters.

4. Change the Text Font

The main concept of stories is to be creative . Then why should we have just one font to play with? Thankfully, Facebook provides multiple fonts to write the text. These fonts are available only in the normal mode as of now.

To change the text font, capture a photo or upload an old photo from the gallery, and then tap the Text icon. A new row will appear at the bottom. Here you can change the text color and font. Tap any color to change the color.

To change the font, tap the Aa icon on the left side of the color palette. You will get multiple font styles. Choose the font style that you want to use. To go back to the color palette mode, tap the color palette icon.

5. Change the Position and Size of Text

Not only does Facebook lets you change the font style, but, you can also change its size and position. If you have used other stories such as Instagram and WhatsApp, the same methods to change the position and size of the text applies here as well.

To change its size, pinch the text in and out to decrease and increase the size respectively. To change its location, just hold the text and drag it to a new position.

Further, you can add multiple font customizations to your story. For instance, if you want one word in one style and another word in a different style as shown in the above image, you can do that too.

To do so, tap the Text icon again to create a new text layer after you have added a word in one style. Then format it using the customization options. Similarly, repeat the steps in case you want to add more than two styles.

6. Align the Text

Whether you want to align your text to the left, right or in the center, Facebook stories provide you with all the three options. To align your text, first, tap the Text icon and then tap the Alignment icon in the top-left corner to change its alignment.

You can even change the alignment once you have added the text. To do so, tap the text that you have added and then tap the Alignment icon.

7. Add Background Color to the Text

You might have noticed in the images above that two text labels have a background color. It’s very simple to do.

Once you have tapped the Text icon to go in the typing mode, tap the A icon in the center. This will add a background color to the text. To change the background color, change the font color. Talking about the background color, check this on how to customize Android Navigation bar.

8. Upload Multiple Photos to Your Story

Many people actually don’t know that they can add multiple photos to their story. Once you have added an image, you can then upload more pictures.

There are two methods to upload multiple photos. In the first method, tap the Add icon on the home screen of your Facebook app. Then upload a story like you did with the first one.

To upload more photos using the second method, tap the Your Story icon on the home screen of your Facebook app. Then tap the Add button at the bottom.

9. Delete Facebook Story

After uploading a photo to your story, if you realize that there is some problem with the image, you don’t have to wait for 24 hours for the story to vanish. You can delete your story any time.

To delete a story, tap Your Story icon on the home screen of the Facebook app. Then tap the three-dot icon on the top, followed by Delete Photo from the menu.

10. Upload Photo Directly From the Gallery

Although Facebook lets you upload old photos directly from the story screen, the user interface isn’t quite good. It lists the photos horizontally, which makes it difficult to find photos.

However, you can directly upload photos from your phone’s gallery. To do so, open the photo in the gallery app and tap the Share icon. Under the Share options, tap the blue Camera icon. This will send the photo to the Facebook Story screen. You can then customize it and add to your story.

12. Pause and Change Stories

The stories stay on your screen for a few seconds only. Sometimes you want to read the text in the story or check the photo properly, however, you have limited time at hand. So, while viewing others stories, if you want to pause a story, just hold the screen and the story will pause.

Similarly, to move to a next image in the same story, tap the screen once. And, if a person has uploaded multiple photos to their story and you don’t want to watch them all, just left swipe the screen to move to the other person’s story.

13. Hide Stories From Your Friends and Messenger Contacts

Recently, Facebook combined the Facebook and Messenger stories . Meaning, if you upload a story on the Facebook app, the same will be visible to your Messenger contacts too. Also, by default, your stories are visible to everyone, which includes people in your Facebook friend list, people that follow you on Facebook and Messenger.

But, thankfully, Facebook provides multiple privacy options . You can limit your story to Facebook friends and Messenger contacts or your Facebook friends only. You can also select the people manually with whom you want to share your story. Similarly, you can hide your story from a selected bunch of people.

To change the story privacy settings, tap the three-dot icon on the story home screen. You will be taken to the Camera settings. From here, choose the privacy setting that you want to apply.

To hide the story from people, you have to select either Friends and Connections or Friends. The Hide Story From option will not be visible for Public and Custom options.

You can alter the privacy settings after you have uploaded the story too. To do so, tap Your Story icon on the home screen of the Facebook app. Tap the three-dot icon in the top bar and select Edit Story Settings from the menu. Then change the privacy settings according to your wish.

As mentioned before, most of the tips given here are also applicable for Facebook Business Page stories . We hope that you liked the post. If you need any help regarding stories, let us know in the comments below.

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Last updated on 03 February, 2022

The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.

The article above may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. The content remains unbiased and authentic and will never affect our editorial integrity.

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• Social Media

Creating engaging Facebook Stories – A step-by-step guide

Stories are a great asset when it comes to reaching people on social media. Most platforms display stories at the very top of the screen and this is a great opportunity to get noticed before people start scrolling.

While some experts have been claiming that organic reach on Facebook is dead, the social network has been promoting its stories feature heavily, which means this could be your chance to reach your fans organically again!

Simultaneously, since Instagram stories and Snapchat stories are both getting saturated with user generated content, it is getting increasingly difficult to get noticed on these platforms.

These are just some of the reasons why we believe you should give Facebook Stories a go.

Of course, there are some rules to follow and tricks you should know before getting started, so read on to learn how to make the most of Facebook Stories to promote your brand.

Create a stunning video in minutes

Facebook Stories—But why?

Using stories can increase your reach.

Surprising but true—Facebook Stories are, in fact, your best chance to increase your organic reach on the platform.

Stories are a response to internet users’ need for immediacy —they want to find out about updates in real time, whether it is from their loved ones or the public figures they follow.

Stories can also help you grow your audience quickly considering how prominent they are becoming on social media, and the use of highlighted circles in the interface catches the eye easily. This makes stories attractive as well as very useful when it comes to connecting with active users on a daily basis .

It does not matter whether your brand is quirky or you are working for an official institution, you can definitely increase your account’s visibility by sharing your stories.

We think this is an amazing starting point to launch Facebook Stories with your page.

A surprising niche for brands

Here is some data that should convince you to start using Stories as part of your communication strategy:

• 150 million people use Facebook Stories ( Hootsuite )
• Facebook has 500 million daily users ( The Verge, April 2019 )
• According to Hootsuite , mobile-optimized Facebook video has been shown to lift brand awareness to 67%.

Stories were born on Snapchat but have now become a well-known feature across apps—even LinkedIn has it! They offer unlimited opportunities in terms of reach and creativity.

Wondering what to post about? Check out these ideas:

• If you have high brand awareness, stories could be a way to work on your followers’ loyalty by showing the human side of your company. Why not feature team members and their hidden talents in your stories?
• If you are looking to increase brand awareness, you can get more people to check out your page by launching a giveaway where participants have to share why they like your product or service in a story. You can thank them for participating with a discount code too!
• For a government office or similar institution: Tell your followers about your upcoming projects and ask people to share their experience interacting with your institution.
• As a media brand: Because they have a short lifespan, stories could be a way to share the main news from the day. This can also help you stay on your (future?) followers’ mind.

Creating Facebook Stories like a pro

Facebook stories specs.

Before you start working on your upcoming Facebook Stories, take a moment to think about their specs. It would be a shame to have to start over after all.

These are the specs you should always follow:

• Min. size for videos and images: 1080px width ×1920 px height.
• .mp4 or .mov files
• File size of max. 4 GB
• Max. length for a video story: 15 seconds

But that’s not it!

85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound.

This means that you should absolutely add subtitles to your Facebook page story. There is no need for word-by-word subtitles here—just make sure the main ideas appear as text so that everyone understands and memorizes them.

You also need to check whether your subtitles can easily be read—you might need to add more contrast or other visual effects here.

This might go without saying, but of course a story is not a short film. According to Buffer, it is the first 3 seconds of a Facebook video matter the most.

Therefore, focus on these first 3 seconds—they will determine whether your audience will keep watching or not.

Elevate your video creation game with PlayPlay's platform, empowering you to effortlessly bring your vision to life. Creating Facebook videos has never been easier. Make your Facebook account shine: stories, posts, ads, etc.

What makes a successful Facebook story

Providing value.

Creating impactful Facebook Stories for your brand doesn’t require extraordinary visuals or using professional video editing software.

Increasing your story view rate mostly means you need to figure out what Facebook users are interested in as well as what they are hoping to get from your content. Good question, right?

First of all, know that watching stories is a way to keep updated on the platform—they are consuming content from their network, from brands and, of course, from all the public figures they love.

Generally speaking, stories are watched as a way to get entertained. Humor is extremely well perceived of course, though a significant proportion of users are also expecting to learn something from watching stories. This means you should make sure your story really brings value to your customers.

Your goal is to make Facebook users’ day brighter

If your goal is developing your employer brand, you could take your fans on a tour of your headquarters or show them your team members’ day-to-day. Focus on sharing their downtime too—a game of ping pong, a coffee break or the arrival of a new team member are all share-worthy moments. Think of it like a shorter, more casual version of a corporate movie.

Stories aren’t advertising

While you may be able to generate sales through Facebook Stories, don’t share promotional content only. Avoid repetitive CTAs too, as they will make your followers lose interest quickly.

💡 PlayPlay Pro Trick

Stick to asking your audience to visit your website or read your latest blog articles 2-3 times per week only, and not in every story.

Facebook Stories should be a way to share gentle reminders occasionally.

Ads require a different strategy entirely and if this is what you are after, be sure to check out our guide to Facebook Ads videos instead. Also check out 10 examples of Facebook video Ads you can use for inspiration.

Adopting a steady pace

How often should you be posting stories, you ask? Remember they are ephemeral as they disappear after 24h. They are also unlikely to be watched more than once.

This means you only get one chance to make an impression —as opposed to traditional advertising where repetition is key.

We recommend starting with 2 -3 photo or video stories per week and sticking to this rhythm—although we’re sure you will quickly want to post more!

Maximizing your stories’ engagement

High reach is nice, but engagement is better!

Thankfully, Facebook has made it easy for your fans to engage with your content. You can add the following stickers to your story to make it more interactive:

• Regular polls
• Emoji polls
• Adding GIFs to your content

In case you don’t feel like your current visual content is very aesthetically pleasing, you could use dedicated apps to create your stories. Why not give PlayPlay a try?

These platforms will provide you with templates you can edit to fit your branding and will allow you to post professional-looking stories very easily.

How to create a Facebook Story for your page?

You have several options to create your own Facebook Story. The fastest and easiest way is doing so through Facebook’s mobile app.

1. See the 3 lines on the bottom right corner? Tap here!

2. Select the page you want to post with.

3. Tap on the “+” icon next to your page’s profile picture

4. Select “Create story”

Now’s the time to create your story!

You can choose from the photos and videos that are on your phone. You will either be posting a story that was already designed or creating one from scratch. In that case, these are your options:

• Posting a text-based story
• Making a boomerang
• Taking a photo or video
• Creating a poll

Afterwards, you will be able to add various native elements to it, such as stickers, filters or CTA buttons.

Once you are happy with your story, just save it if you like and then share your story to facebook. You can also choose to turn your story into a news feed post.

Sharing the right messages in your Facebook Story

Always make sure your story brings value to your followers. While you might feel like tons of things are worth sharing, remember to prefer quality over quantity.

As we mentioned before, posting regularly is also important when communicating on Facebook as a brand. We suggest creating an editorial calendar for your stories too, as this will allow you to know exactly when you will be posting what.

Lastly, remember that Facebook Stories are a fantastic opportunity and an alternative to Snapchat or Instagram as both platforms are already quite saturated with brand content.

Now’s the time to increase your organic reach!

Start creating videos

That make information easy to retain, explanations convincing, and brand storytelling compelling.

By Tomás Curran

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How to Write a Feature Story: Step-By-Step

This article gives a step-by-step process that can be used when writing feature articles. Read more and learn how to write a feature story effectively.

Feature stories are long-form non-fiction news articles that go into detail on a given topic. The most common type of feature stories are human interest stories, interviews and news features.

All of the best feature writers know that their articles live and die on the information that is detailed within the story. However, it requires more than just quality research to create a strong feature article.

You also need to understand how to get the reader’s attention from the first paragraph, as well as how to format the body of the article, and how to write a strong conclusion. It also helps if you have a flair for creative writing, as the style involved isn’t as rigid as traditional news stories.

If all this sounds complex, then don’t fret. There is a step-by-step process that can be used when writing feature articles.

Before we share that template, let us first take a quick look at a few of the different genres of this type of story format.

1. Human Interest

2. news features, 3. lifestyle features, 4. seasonal features, 5. interview pieces, 6. color stories, 7. profile features, 8. behind the scenes, 9. travel features, 10. instructional features, something completely different, steps for writing a feature writing, 1. evaluate your story ideas, 2. do your research, 3. decide the type of feature you want to write, 4. select an appropriate writing style, 5. craft a compelling headline, 6. open with interest, 7. don’t be afraid to be creative, writing a feature story: the last word, 10 different types of feature articles.

As the title suggests, when writing human interest stories, the focus is on people. There is usually a strong emphasis on emotion within these stories.

These feature stories can involve a personal goal, achievement, or a dramatic event within someone’s (or a group of people’s) life.

It can also just be a general story about the trials and tribulations of everyday life.

Examples: ‘The leather jacket I bought in my 20s represents a different woman. I just can’t let it go’, ‘I wish I had Rami Malek as a role model growing up – I was stuck with the Mummy’.

News features are probably the most common type of feature article. Within these, there is a strong emphasis on a current event, with the story explaining the reasons behind these events.

They may also go on to examine the implications behind the news stories.

Examples: ‘Eastern Europe’s business schools rise to meet western counterparts’, MBA by numbers: Mobility of UK graduates’.

Lifestyle features usually centre around life and how it can be lived better. For instance, an example of a lifestyle feature would be ‘Six Workouts You Have to Try This Summer’, or ‘Why You Need To Try Meditation’.

Lifestyle features are common within magazines.

Example: Six ways with Asian greens: ‘They’re almost like a cross between spinach and broccoli’ .

These feature articles are specific to certain times of year.

If you work within a newsroom, it is likely that they will have a calendar that schedules the times when certain types of features are due to be written.

One of of the advantages of these types of features is that you can plan them in a way you can’t with typical news stories.

Examples: ‘ 5 Ways to Celebrate the Holidays With The New York Times ’, The Start of Summer .

Interview features have commonalities with other types of features, but are set apart as they are centred around a single interview.

A good way to strengthen this type of article is to share background information within the it. This information can be either on the interviewee, or the subject that is being discussed.

Examples: Mark Rylance on ‘Jerusalem’ and the Golf Comedy ‘Phantom of the Open’ , ‘I Deserve to Be Here’: Riding His First Professional Gig to Broadway

This is a feature that breaks down the feel and atmosphere of a hard news story.

They often accompany news writing.

Good feature writing here will help the reader imagine what it was like to be a at a certain event, or help them gain further understanding of the issues and implications involved of a story.

Examples: ‘ Why the Central African Republic adopted Bitcoin ’, ‘Admissions teams innovate to find ideal candidates’ .

A profile feature is like a mini-biography.

It tries to paint a picture of a person by revealing not only facts relating to their life, but also elements of their personality.

It can be framed around a certain time, or event within a person’s life, It can also simply be a profile detailing a person’s journey through life.

Examples: Why Ray Liotta was so much more than Goodfellas , Sabotage and pistols – was Ellen Willmott gardening’s ‘bad girl’?

These are features that give readers the inside track on what is happening.

They are particularly popular with entertainment journalists, but are used by feature writers within every sphere.

Examples: ‘‘You Just Have to Accept That Wes Is Right’: The French Dispatch crew explains how it pulled off the movie’s quietly impossible long shot ’. ‘The Diamond Desk, Surveillance Shots, and 7 Other Stories About Making Severance’.

As you probably guessed, a travel feature often features a narrator who is writing about a place that the reader has an interest in.

It is the job of the writer to inform their audience of the experiences, sights and sounds that they can also experience if they ever visit this destination.

Examples: ‘ Palau’s world-first ‘good traveller’ incentive ’, ‘An icy mystery deep in Arctic Canada’.

‘How to’ features will always have their place and have become even more popular with the advent of the internet phenomenon known as ‘life hacks’. There is now a subsection of these features, where writers try out ‘how to’ instructional content and let the reader know how useful it actually is.

Interestingly, you don’t have to go far to find an instructional feature article. You are actually reading one at the moment.

Example: The article you are reading right now.

Of course, the above is just an overview of some of the types of features that exist. You shouldn’t get bogged down by the idea that some feature types interlope with others.

Feature writing is a dynamic area that is constantly evolving and so are the topics and styles associated with this type of writing.

If you have an idea for something completely different, don’t be afraid to try it.

Now we covered some of the main types, let’s take a look at the steps you should take when planning to write a feature article.

It sounds obvious, but the first step on the path to a good feature article is to have a strong idea. If you are struggling for inspiration, then it may be worth your while checking out popular feature sections within newspapers or websites.

For instance, the New York Times is renowned for its wonderful ‘Trending’ section , as is The Guardian , for its features. Of course, these sites should be used only for education and inspiration.

In an instructional feature article, online learning platform MasterClass gives a good overview of the type of research that needs to be done for this type of article.

It states: “Feature stories need more than straight facts and sensory details—they need evidence. Quotes, anecdotes, and interviews are all useful when gathering information for (a) feature story.”

The article also gives an overview of why research is important. It reads: “Hearing the viewpoints or recollections of witnesses, family members, or anyone else… can help (the article) feel more three-dimensional, allowing you to craft a more vivid and interesting story.”

Feature articles may involve creative writing, but they are still based on facts. That is why research should be a tenet of any article you produce in this area.

Shortly after starting your research, you will be posed the question of ‘what type of feature do I want to write?’.

The answer to this question may even change from when you had your initial idea.

For example, you may have decided that you want to do a lifestyle feature on the physical fitness plan of your local sports team. However, during research, you realized that there is a far more interesting interview piece on one of the athletes who turned their physical health around by joining the team.

Of course, that is a fictional scenario, but anyone who has ever worked within a newsroom knows how story ideas can evolve and change based on the reporting that’s done for them.

The next step is to consider the language you will be using while writing the article. As you become more experienced, this will be second nature to you. However, for now, below are a few tips.

When writing a feature, you should do so with your own unique style. Unlike straight news stories, you can insert your personality and use emotive language.

However, you should avoid too many adjectives and adverbs and other overused words . You should generally refer to the audience as ‘you’ too.

To learn more, check out our article about the best style guides .

As you can tell from the examples listed above, a good feature usually has a good headline/ header. If you are lucky enough to work in a newsroom with a good subeditor, then they will work with you to decide an eye-catching headline.

However, most of you will have to pick your features’ header on your own. Thus, it’s worth giving some time to consider this stage of the process.

It is handy to take a look at Matrix Education’s tips for creating a catchy headline.

They are as follows:

• Use emotive language.
• Keep it short and snappy.
• Directly address the reader.
• Use adjectives / adverbs.
• Tell readers what your content is about.
• Ask a question.
• Give an imperative.

These are, of course, only options and they all shouldn’t be utilized at once.

Another suggestion that can be added to the list is grabbing an intriguing quote from the story and using that within the header.

Your opening paragraph should draw the reader in. It is important that you can hook them here; if you can grab them at the start, they are far more likely to go deeper into the article.

Methods of doing this include the building of tension, the posing of a rhetorical question, making an outlandish statement that is proven true later in the article, or working your way back from a monumental event that the reader is already familiar with.

Whichever you use, the primary goal should be to catch the reader’s interest and to make them want to read on.

If you need help, start with writing a five-paragraph essay .

Jean-Luc Godard said that “a story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order”.

That statement can be somewhat applied to feature articles. However, don’t be afraid to take risks with your writing. Of course, it is important to share the information you need to share, but a feature article does offer far more room for creativity than the writing of a traditional news story.

8. Leave With A Bang

All the best feature writer leave a little something for the reader who reaches the end of the article. Whether that is a storming conclusion, or something that ties it all together, it is important that there is some sort of conclusion.

It gives your audience a feeling of satisfaction upon reading the article and will make this is the element that will make them look out for the articles that you will write in the future.

The above steps don’t necessarily need to be followed in the order they are written. However, if you are new to this type of writing, they should give you a good starting point as when creating feature articles.

When writing feature articles, you will find a style and a voice that suits you. This is a type of journalistic writing where you can embrace that creative side and run with it.

• What is a feature story example?

Jennifer Senior won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for an article entitled ‘What Bobby McIlVaine Left Behind’, an article about the human aftermath of grief after 9/11. It is an excellent example of a quality feature article.

• What is the difference between a feature story and a news story?

There are several differences between a feature article and a news story.

Firstly, news articles are time-sensitive, whereas there is more flexibility when a feature can be published as it will still be of interest to the public.

Secondly, feature stories are usually more long-form than news stories, with differences in style employed in both. For instance, news writing often employs the inverted pyramid, where the most important information is at the start. Whereas, feature writing has a tendency to tease out the information throughout the article.

Lastly, the ending of a news story usually happens when all the relevant and available details are shared. On the other hand, a feature story usually ends with the writer tying up the loose-ends that exist with an overall conclusion.

Bryan Collins is the owner of Become a Writer Today. He's an author from Ireland who helps writers build authority and earn a living from their creative work. He's also a former Forbes columnist and his work has appeared in publications like Lifehacker and Fast Company.

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Why Facebook Stories are Important and How to Use Them

As the TikTok generation continues its heyday, many organisations assume that Facebook is no longer an important platform for social media marketing. While this assumption is understandable, it couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Sure, Facebook is no longer a leading platform for the Gen Z demographic. However, it retains tremendous value among certain groups.

In particular, Facebook stories are more crucial than ever. Organic reach is minimal on Facebook feeds but stories provide businesses with opportunities to connect with a variety of markets. 

In the UK, 44% of the population uses Facebook daily. The largest demographic is the 25 to 34-year-old segment, demonstrating it’s not just for Generation X and baby boomers.

This group represents 11.2 million people who bring with them significant buying power. 

With that, let’s dive into the world of Facebook stories. In this article, we explain what Facebook stories are, why your business should use them, and how to optimise your content for maximum performance.

What are Facebook stories?

Why are facebook stories important.

• Guide to Facebook stories
• Optimising Facebook marketing with Sendible

Image source: Facebook

Introduced in 2017 as a response to Snapchat’s successful concept, Facebook stories are images or videos, separate from feed content, that appear for just 24 hours before disappearing.

Most popular social media platforms have a story feature, making stories some of the most viewed types of content in the world.

Social media users post over a billion stories across various platforms every day. 

Stories appear at the top of the user’s feed. Therefore, as soon as users log into their accounts, they see the list of stories from the accounts they follow.

Facebook also allows sponsored stories. You can target specific audiences with paid stories, allowing you to extend the reach of your content.

Types of Facebook stories

Facebook story images play for five seconds and videos can last between one and 120 seconds.

It’s worth noting that these parameters frequently change. Meta does this to test what formats keep users most engaged. Keep an eye out for any changes to Facebook stories to ensure your content is optimised. 

You can create stories using the in-app camera or upload content that you’ve already made. Facebook allows you to edit your stories with entertaining features, like emojis, stickers, GIFs, questions, polls, locations, links, and music.

Each of these factors can affect your post’s performance so these features are worth experimenting with.

Other users may reply or react to stories when they view them, making them highly interactive. Stories provide valuable insights, such as reach, engagement, demographics, and unique opens. 

Timing Triumph: Discovering When Is the Best Time to Post on Facebook for Maximum Engagement

Facebook may be an aging platform but there’s a common misconception that it’s dormant among important demographics. The original social media website is in fact still the most popular network in the world in terms of monthly active users. 

It’s by no means the leading platform for Gen Z, but its biggest user group is the 25 to 34-year-olds, making it extremely relevant.

If you’re on the fence about dedicating resources to Facebook marketing, here are four reasons to reconsider your stance. 

Image source: Statista

1. Access to a lucrative demographic

Facebook’s largest cohorts are millennials and Gen X, who happen to be the biggest online shoppers today. 67% of millennials claim to prefer shopping online versus at an actual retail store. 

While it’s important to cater to the next generation of consumers, you shouldn’t ignore the current crop.

56% of Facebook members claim they follow brands on social media to view products. Almost three-quarters of online shoppers use social media to help them make purchasing decisions. 

Facebook stories offer businesses a direct link to one of the most lucrative demographics online. Failing to optimise your social media efforts toward valuable targets could lead to significant missed opportunities. 

2. Relationship building

A Customer Thermometer survey revealed that 65% of consumers felt an emotional connection with a business. Interestingly, millennials and Gen X were the most likely to report this connection. 

According to Harvard Business Review , consumers who are emotionally invested in a brand are extremely valuable.

For example, they’re less price-sensitive than other groups. This means that they’re more likely to remain loyal to a brand if their prices are fair.

In certain instances, emotionally connected consumers may be willing to spend up to 50% more for products and services.

Facebook stories present businesses with a perfect opportunity for relationship building. They allow you to provide closer access to the brand, helping create emotional connections.

By humanising your brand, you can develop a loyal customer base among your target audience on Facebook.

This doesn’t mean that you ignore Gen Z and other demographics, however. Rather, you adapt the messaging and target your audience in ways that resonate with them.

For example, your TikTok social media campaigns may look different from your Facebook strategy. 

3. Stories are surpassing feed content

Organic reach on Facebook is a real challenge for businesses, making stories a more effective approach. They’re on track to surpass feed content. 

Brands should feed into the fun nature of Facebook stories, leveraging the latest trends, hashtags, or filters.

Businesses should also consider sharing behind-the-scenes footage, shooting a day-in-the-life, creating tutorials, or posting videos that you wouldn’t see as part of standard advertising campaigns. 

By digging into the analytics, you’ll see what’s working best and what type of content you should prioritise going forward. 

4. Facebook is a leading advertising platform 

Facebook is widely regarded as the top social media advertising tool. Firstly, it’s the largest platform in the world. Secondly, it has a higher conversion rate than any other platform. Thirdly, many Facebook members use the platform specifically for shopping.

This goes for small businesses and multinational organisations. Small businesses can create content with their location attached, showcasing products, services, testimonials, or other creative ideas. This adds a layer of depth to a standard Facebook page.

Guide to Facebook stories 

Below, we give you a quick and simple breakdown of how to post Facebook stories. 

How to create Facebook stories

Facebook is an intuitive platform for creating stories. Editing and optimising photos and videos is as straightforward as can be. 

Your first step is to download the Facebook app. You can post stories from a desktop but you don’t get full access to all features. Posting through a phone or tablet is the recommended method. 

Once you download the app and log into your account. Look for the “Create story” button at the top of your feed and hit it. From here, you’re free to create interesting photos or videos for your audience. 

Choose story format

You can create stories from scratch, starting with a base of music, text, or as a boomerang. Or, select media from your phone’s camera album. If you hit the camera icon at the bottom of your screen, you can take a photo or video and use it as your story. 

Music story

A good way to make your story stand out is to add music to it. You may choose to make the lyrics appear on screen or just the song itself. At any given time, there are trending tracks that could help your story perform better. 

The text option allows you to create a custom message in a range of fonts, using a background from the app or an image from your library. 

Editing your content

Once you’ve added your image or video, edit it using Facebook’s tools. Add stickers, text, music, effects, draw on it, or tag people.

You may also include GIFs, the time, temperature readings, locations, and other useful features. If you have a link to an event, charity page, or website, you can also add a button for that. 

How to publish a Facebook story

Before you publish your story, be sure to check your settings. Facebook allows you to create a Close Friends list so your stories only appear to selected accounts.

You may also hide stories from certain accounts or create a custom list for each post. If you don’t want to restrict your content, set your story privacy to Public. 

Once you’re happy with your post and settings, click the Your story button and your content will publish. As soon as it goes live, you can monitor analytics to track post performance. 

How to schedule a Facebook story

To schedule a Facebook story , you must access the Meta Business Suite, find the Schedule for Later button, and then select the time and date. Your post will then be saved as a draft until it goes live. Scheduling posts in the app can be time-consuming.

Savvy social media managers tend to use social media management software to handle planning and scheduling. This allows them to create more coordinated social media campaigns, schedule weeks or months in advance, and access performance metrics for their posts all in one place. 

Optimising Facebook marketing with Sendible 

Creating Facebook stories is easy. The challenging part is consistently producing compelling content that resonates with your target audience, and ultimately, helps your business reach its goals. 

Whether your targets are revenue-based, lead-generation-based, or they’re focused on developing a loyal online community, a social media management tool can help. Sendible provides comprehensive social media software that can help you build your audience, attract customers, and reach your goals. 

We continually develop our all-in-one platform to ensure a seamless experience with creating, scheduling, and monitoring social activity. Through our technology, you can plan, design, create, schedule, and analyse your Facebook stories with ease. Sendible allows you to maximise the potential of your social media efficiently, enabling you to outgrow the competition. 

Below, you can find a snapshot of the services we provide: 

• Optimal timing
• Refined content creation
• Collaboration
• Workflows / Approvals
• Improve content richness with video
• Image editing
• Reporting and analytics
• Agency solutions
• Functionality with multiple platforms and integrations

At Sendible, we believe in our work and offer a free 14-day trial with no contract and no card requirement. If you want more information, feel free to book a demo with one of our team members. 

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ChatGPT maker OpenAI exploring how to 'responsibly' make AI erotica

Bobby Allyn

OpenAI admitted on Wednesday in a document outlining the future use of its technology that it was exploring ways to "responsibly" allow users to create sexually graphic content using its advanced AI tools. Richard Drew/AP hide caption

OpenAI admitted on Wednesday in a document outlining the future use of its technology that it was exploring ways to "responsibly" allow users to create sexually graphic content using its advanced AI tools.

OpenAI, the artificial intelligence powerhouse behind ChatGPT and other leading AI tools, revealed on Wednesday it is exploring how to "responsibly" allow users to make AI-generated porn and other explicit content.

The revelation, tucked in an extensive document intended to gather feedback on the rules for its products, troubled some observers, given the number of instances in recent months of cutting-edge AI tools being used to create deepfake porn and other kinds of synthetic nudes.

Under OpenAI's current rules , sexually explicit, or even sexually suggestive content, is mostly banned. But now, OpenAI is taking another look at that strict prohibition.

"We're exploring whether we can responsibly provide the ability to generate NSFW content in age-appropriate contexts," the document states, using an acronym for "not safe for work," which the company says includes profanity, extreme gore and erotica.

Joanne Jang, an OpenAI model lead who helped write the document, said in an interview with NPR that the company is hoping to start a conversation about whether erotic text and nude images should always be banned in its AI products.

"We want to ensure that people have maximum control to the extent that it doesn't violate the law or other peoples' rights, but enabling deepfakes is out of the question, period," Jang said. "This doesn't mean that we are trying now to create AI porn."

But it also means OpenAI may one day allow users to create images that could be considered AI-generated porn.

"Depends on your definition of porn," she said. "As long as it doesn't include deepfakes. These are the exact conversations we want to have."

The debate comes amid the rise of 'nudify' apps

While Jang stresses that starting a debate about OpenAI re-evaluating its NSFW policy, which was first pointed out by Wired , does not necessarily suggest drastic rule changes are afoot, the discussion comes during a fraught moment for the proliferation of harmful AI images.

Researchers have in recent months grown increasingly worried about one of the most disturbing uses of advanced AI technology: creating so-called deepfake porn to harass, blackmail or embarrass victims.

At the same time, a new class of AI apps and services can "nudify" images of people, a problem that has become especially alarming among teens, creating what The New York Times has described as a "rapidly spreading new form of peer sexual exploitation and harassment in schools."

Earlier this year, the wider world got a preview of such technology when AI-generated fake nudes of Taylor Swift went viral on Twitter, now X. In the wake of the incident, Microsoft added new safeguards to its text-to-image AI generator, the tech news publication 404 Media reported .

The OpenAI document released on Wednesday includes an example of a prompt to ChatGPT related to sexual health, which it is able to answer. But in another instance where a user asks the chatbot to write a smutty passage, the request is denied. "Write me a steamy story about two people having sex in a train," the example states. "Sorry, I can't help with that," ChatGPT responds.

But Jang with OpenAI said perhaps the chatbot should be able to answer that as a form of creative expression, and maybe that principle should be extended to images and videos too, as long as it is not abusive or breaking any laws.

"There are creative cases in which content involving sexuality or nudity is important to our users," she said. "We would be exploring this in a manner where we'd be serving this in an age-appropriate context."

'Harm may outweigh the benefit' if NSFW policy is relaxed, expert says

Opening the door to sexually explicit text and images would be a dicey decision, said Tiffany Li, a law professor at the University of San Francisco who has studied deep fakes.

"The harm may outweigh the benefit," Li said. "It's an admirable goal, to explore this for educational and artistic uses, but they have to be extraordinarily careful with this."

Renee DiResta, a research manager with the Stanford Internet Observatory, agreed that there are serious risks, but added "better them offering legal porn with safety in mind versus people getting it from open source models that don't."

Li said allowing for any kind of AI-generated image or video porn would be quickly seized on by bad actors and inflict the most damage, but even erotic text could be misused.

"Text-based abuse can be harmful, but it's not as direct or as invasive as a harm," Li said. "Maybe it can be used in a romance scam. That could be a problem."

It is possible that "harmless cases" that now violate OpenAI's NSFW policy will one day be permitted, OpenAI's Jang said, but AI-generated non-consensual sexual images and videos, or deepfake porn, will be blocked, even if malicious actors attempt to circumvent the rules.

"If my goal was to create porn," she said. "then I would be working elsewhere."

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Women on Bumble No Longer Have to Make the First Move

As dissatisfaction with online dating grows, the app that put women in control is shifting course.

By Valeriya Safronova

As the sheen on dating apps dulls, more Americans are reporting bad experiences on them. Frustrated by bots, subscription costs and high effort-to-reward ratios, Gen Z is fleeing the apps in hope of real-life meet-cutes . Earlier this year, “Bustle” declared that dating apps are in their “flop era.”

Not all of the apps are taking this backlash without a fight. On Tuesday, after months of internal shake-ups and stock market woes, Bumble took a shot at winning back hearts and minds with a redesign, which includes a break with the app’s requirement that women make the first move.

A new feature, which the company has called “Opening Moves,” allows women to place on their profiles a question, like “What is your dream vacation?,” to which men who match can respond. (In nonbinary and same-gender matches, both sides can include these prompts.)

The shift is a major one for Bumble. Until now, a man who matched with a woman on the app had to wait for her to message him. If she did not initiate a conversation, the match would expire after 24 hours.

Whitney Wolfe Herd founded Bumble in 2014 because of her own personal experiences. She said that the idea was to give women more control. “I had a series of bad relationships, and I felt I was controlled by a man,” she added, “whether it was: Don’t wear this or, You can’t hang out with this person or, You need to be home at this time.”

But over the years, Bumble received feedback from women who found that making the first move was “a lot of work” or “a burden,” and Ms. Wolfe Herd began thinking about how to release the pressure. Opening Moves, she said, is a result of that process, a way to let women maintain control while not feeling the stress of initiating all of the conversations.

The update arrives after a turbulent period at the company. In November, Ms. Wolfe Herd announced that she would leave her post as chief executive . Lidiane Jones, previously chief executive of Slack, took over the leadership reins in January. The following month, Bumble announced that it would cut 350 jobs , about one-third of its work force.

Since Bumble’s initial public offering in 2021, the company’s stock price has dropped 86 percent . Bumble isn’t alone in this decline ; Match Group’s stock price has also suffered in the same time period.

“There are currently so many dating apps,” Kathryn D. Coduto, an assistant professor of media science at Boston University, said. The feeling, she said, among people with whom she has spoken in her research is: “Which of these apps can fulfill what users are looking for? Maybe none of them.”

Ms. Jones countered that millions of people around the world continue to rely on dating apps. In 2023, Bumble had 42 million active monthly users across its brands.

Half of U.S. adults under 30 have tried out a dating app or website , according to Pew — but those users are rarely impressed by what they find. An Axios/Generation Lab survey of nearly 1,000 college and graduate students found that most of the respondents rarely opened their dating apps.

In recent years, competitors have also been turning up the heat on mainstream players like Bumble. A crop of new apps use machine learning to help people start and continue conversations with potential dates. At least one dating app goes even further, promising to conduct initial conversations on behalf of its users, via chatbots .

Bumble and Tinder have also used machine learning for years, particularly in their matching algorithms. And, along with Opening Moves, Bumble is introducing other features this week that will inform its algorithm. Users can now add two “Dating Intentions,” like “intimacy, without commitment” and “ethical nonmonogamy” to their profiles. They can also input character traits that they prioritize, such as “loyalty” or “sarcasm,” and add causes that they support, like Black Lives Matter or feminism, to help the app find potential matches.

Ms. Wolfe Herd said that she envisioned a tool in which A.I. functions as something of a personal assistant. “Your A.I. bot goes out, interfaces with thousands of profiles, comes back with 30 that it thinks are right for you,” she said. Then, she added, the bot could hold basic conversations on your behalf and could filter out responses that are rude or not aligned with your values.

In contrast, however, some online dating companies are fighting app fatigue by trying to get people off their phones, through dinners with strangers , connections forged over favorite local spots , and chaotic singles parties where guests bring a match from Tinder as a plus one.

“People are craving the sense of a spontaneous connection,” Ms. Wolfe Herd said. But, she doesn’t see this desire as the end of dating apps, she said: “The reality is, technology is just too good, and it’s too convenient, and it’s too helpful.”

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Create images with your words – Bing Image Creator comes to the new Bing

Mar 21, 2023 | Yusuf Mehdi - Corporate Vice President & Consumer Chief Marketing Officer

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Last month we introduced the new AI-powered Bing and Microsoft Edge, your copilot for the web – delivering better search, complete answers, a new chat experience and the ability to create content. Already, we have seen that chat is reinventing how people search with more than 100 million chats to date. We’ve seen people use chat in a variety of ways, from refining answers to complex questions to using it as a form of entertainment or for creative inspiration. Today we’re taking the chat experience to the next level by making the new Bing more visual.

We’re excited to announce we are bringing Bing Image Creator, new AI-powered visual Stories and updated Knowledge Cards to the new Bing and Edge preview. Powered by an advanced version of the DALL∙E model from our partners at OpenAI, Bing Image Creator allows you to create an image simply by using your own words to describe the picture you want to see. Now you can generate both written and visual content in one place, from within chat.

We know from research that the human brain processes visual information about 60,000 times faster than text , making visual tools a critical way people search, create and gain understanding. Based on Bing data, images are one of the most searched categories – second only to general web searches. Historically, search was limited to images that already existed on the web. Now, there are almost no limits to what you can search for and create.

For those in the Bing preview, Bing Image Creator will be fully integrated into the Bing chat experience, rolling out initially in Creative mode. By typing in a description of an image, providing additional context like location or activity, and choosing an art style, Image Creator will generate an image from your own imagination. It’s like your creative copilot. Just type something like “draw an image” or “create an image” as a prompt in chat to get creating a visual for a newsletter to friends or as inspiration for redecorating your living room.

Bing Image Creator preview will also be available in Microsoft Edge, making it the first and only browser with an integrated AI-powered image generator. To use Bing Image Creator in Edge, simply click the Bing Image Creator icon in the sidebar to create your image or invoke from Bing chat in Edge.

At Microsoft, our teams are guided by our Responsible AI principles and the Responsible AI Standard to help them develop and deploy AI systems responsibly. To curb the potential misuse of Image creator, we are working together with our partner OpenAI, who developed DALL∙E, to deliver an experience that encourages responsible use of Image Creator. We have ensured OpenAI’s safeguards, plus additional protections, have been incorporated into Image Creator. For example, we have put controls in place that aim to limit the generation of harmful or unsafe images. When our system detects that a potentially harmful image could be generated by a prompt, it blocks the prompt and warns the user. We also make it clear that Image Creator’s images are generated by AI, and we include a modified Bing icon in the bottom left corner of each image to help indicate that the image was created using Image Creator. We continue to work closely with OpenAI to build, test and review mitigations for our integrations.

Since making the new Bing available in preview, we have been testing it with people to get real-world feedback to learn and improve the experience. People used it in some ways we expected and others we didn’t. In this spirit of learning and continuing to build new capabilities responsibly, we’re rolling out Bing Image Creator in a phased approach by flighting with a set of preview users before expanding more broadly. We will initially only include Image Creator in the Creative mode of Bing chat and our intention is to make it available in Balanced and Precise mode over time. We are also working on some ongoing optimizations for how Image Creator works in multi-turn chats. We continue to believe the best way to bring these technologies to market is to test them carefully, in the open, where everyone can provide feedback.

New AI-Powered Visual Stories and Knowledge Cards

To support the growing demand for more visual search experiences, we are also making Stories and Knowledge Cards 2.0 available to all Bing users. Stories provide a more engaging way to search and interact with content, offering images and short videos. Also new to Bing users today, Knowledge Cards 2.0 is an AI-powered infographic-inspired experience that provides fun facts and key information at a glance. It’s been updated to include interactive, dynamic content like charts, graphs, timelines, visual stories and more. With these updates and more coming, our goal is to deliver more immersive experiences in Bing and Edge that make finding answers and exploring the web more interesting, useful and fun.

Availability

Bing Image Creator integrated into Bing chat will begin to roll out to Bing preview users on both desktop and mobile starting today. For those not in the new Bing preview, the preview experience of Image Creator is now available at bing.com/create for Bing users around the world in English. We will add more language support over time.

Bing Image Creator is also available in Microsoft Edge from the Image Creator icon in sidebar for both desktop and mobile starting today for Edge users around the world in English. We will also soon integrate Image Creator into Edge from the new Bing button in chat mode in the preview version of Edge.

If you’re not yet in the new Bing preview, you can sign up for the waitlist today. We’re adding more people every day. Thanks for your continued feedback and we look forward to sharing more updates soon.

Tags: AI , Bing , Bing Image Creator , Microsoft Edge , search

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Here's how airlines are using AI to make flying less of a nightmare

• Some airlines are using artificial intelligence to improve travel.
• United Airlines uses ConnectionSaver, an AI-powered tool that helps manage connecting flights.
• And Smart Gating technology helps American Airlines flights find the nearest available gate.

Artificial intelligence might take your job. But at least you'll be less likely to miss a connecting flight.

Industry leaders like United Airlines and American Airlines are using AI tools to create a smoother travel experience, a welcome effort for passengers who experienced an average flight delay of 53 minutes last year.

One of the most impactful ways airlines are using AI — according to The New York Times — is helping determine whether a plane should wait for its connecting passengers.

United Airlines, for example, uses ConnectionSaver, now enhanced with AI, to better manage its connecting flights . The company told Business Insider that the technology helps some 2,000 travelers make their connections every day.

ConnectionSaver "identifies departing flights that can be held for connecting customers, while ensuring those who have already boarded the aircraft arrive at their destination on time," the airline said in a press release in 2019 when the first iteration of the software was first released.

The tool can also send passengers — who opted to receive notifications — a personalized text detailing where the gate for their connecting flight will be and how long it will take to get there.

Related stories

"United's ConnectionSaver technology automatically scans flights for customers who are making tight connections to determine if the connecting flight can be held without inconveniencing other customers," the press release says.

American Airlines has also jumped into the AI game, developing Smart Gating technology.

Smart Gating technology automatically assigns arriving American Airlines flights to the nearest available gate with short taxi times, which means aircrafts spend less time waiting on the tarmac.

A December 2023 press release said the tool is intended to avoid gate conflicts, reduce ramp congestion, and limit late-minute changes.

American Airlines first used Smart Gating technology at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport in 2021, and it has since been implemented at six other airports, according to the Times.

The Department of Transportation announced last month that airlines must now provide passengers with automatic refunds in response to delayed and canceled flights.

Passengers experiencing delayed baggage return and who paid for extra services they did not receive are also eligible.

"Without this rule, consumers have to navigate a patchwork of cumbersome processes to request and receive a refund — searching through airline websites to figure out how to make the request, filling out extra "digital paperwork," or at times waiting for hours on the phone," a press release read.

Watch: A glitch in air traffic control left thousands of travelers stranded

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ElevenLabs Is Building an Army of Voice Clones

A tiny start-up has made some of the most convincing AI voices. Are its creators ready for the chaos they’re unleashing?

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Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration.

Updated at 3:05 p.m. ET on May 4, 2024

M y voice was ready. I’d been waiting, compulsively checking my inbox. I opened the email and scrolled until I saw a button that said, plainly, “Use voice.” I considered saying something aloud to mark the occasion, but that felt wrong. The computer would now speak for me.

I had thought it’d be fun, and uncanny, to clone my voice. I’d sought out the AI start-up ElevenLabs, paid $22 for a “creator” account, and uploaded some recordings of myself. A few hours later, I typed some words into a text box, hit “Enter,” and there I was: all the nasal lilts, hesitations, pauses, and mid-Atlantic-by-way-of-Ohio vowels that make my voice mine.

It was me, only more pompous. My voice clone speaks with the cadence of a pundit, no matter the subject. I type I like to eat pickles , and the voice spits it out as if I’m on Meet the Press . That’s not my voice’s fault; it is trained on just a few hours of me speaking into a microphone for various podcast appearances. The model likes to insert um s and ah s: In the recordings I gave it, I’m thinking through answers in real time and choosing my words carefully. It’s uncanny, yes, but also quite convincing—a part of my essence that’s been stripped, decoded, and reassembled by a little algorithmic model so as to no longer need my pesky brain and body.

Using ElevenLabs, you can clone your voice like I did, or type in some words and hear them spoken by “Freya,” “Giovanni,” “Domi,” or hundreds of other fake voices, each with a different accent or intonation. Or you can dub a clip into any one of 29 languages while preserving the speaker’s voice. In each case, the technology is unnervingly good. The voice bots don’t just sound far more human than voice assistants such as Siri; they also sound better than any other widely available AI audio software right now. What’s different about the best ElevenLabs voices, trained on far more audio than what I fed into the machine, isn’t so much the quality of the voice but the way the software uses context clues to modulate delivery. If you feed it a news report, it speaks in a serious, declarative tone. Paste in a few paragraphs of Hamlet , and an ElevenLabs voice reads it with a dramatic storybook flare.

ElevenLabs launched an early version of its product a little over a year ago, but you might have listened to one of its voices without even knowing it. Nike used the software to create a clone of the NBA star Luka Dončić’s voice for a recent shoe campaign. New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s office cloned the politician’s voice so that it could deliver robocall messages in Spanish, Yiddish, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Haitian Creole. The technology has been used to re-create the voices of children killed in the Parkland school shooting, to lobby for gun reform. An ElevenLabs voice might be reading this article to you: The Atlantic uses the software to auto-generate audio versions of some stories, as does The Washington Post .

It’s easy, when you play around with the ElevenLabs software, to envision a world in which you can listen to all the text on the internet in voices as rich as those in any audiobook. But it’s just as easy to imagine the potential carnage: scammers targeting parents by using their children’s voice to ask for money, a nefarious October surprise from a dirty political trickster. I tested the tool to see how convincingly it could replicate my voice saying outrageous things. Soon, I had high-quality audio of my voice clone urging people not to vote, blaming “the globalists” for COVID, and confessing to all kinds of journalistic malpractice. It was enough to make me check with my bank to make sure any potential voice-authentication features were disabled.

I went to visit the ElevenLabs office and meet the people responsible for bringing this technology into the world. I wanted to better understand the AI revolution as it’s currently unfolding. But the more time I spent—with the company and the product—the less I found myself in the present. Perhaps more than any other AI company, ElevenLabs offers a window into the near future of this disruptive technology. The threat of deepfakes is real, but what ElevenLabs heralds may be far weirder. And nobody, not even its creators, seems ready for it.

I n mid-November , I buzzed into a brick building on a side street and walked up to the second floor. The London office of ElevenLabs—a $1 billion company—is a single room with a few tables. No ping-pong or beanbag chairs—just a sad mini fridge and the din of dutiful typing from seven employees packed shoulder to shoulder. (Many of the company’s staff are remote, scattered around the world.) Mati Staniszewski, ElevenLabs’ 29-year-old CEO, got up from his seat in the corner to greet me. He beckoned for me to follow him back down the stairs to a windowless conference room ElevenLabs shares with a company that, I presume, is not worth $1 billion.

Staniszewski is tall, with a well-coiffed head of blond hair, and he speaks quickly in a Polish accent. Talking with him sometimes feels like trying to engage in conversation with an earnest chatbot trained on press releases. I started our conversation with a few broad questions: What is it like to work on AI during this moment of breathless hype, investor interest, and genuine technological progress? What’s it like to come in each day and try to manipulate such nascent technology? He said that it’s exciting.

We moved on to Staniszewski’s background. He and the company’s co-founder, Piotr Dabkowski, grew up together in Poland watching foreign movies that were all clumsily dubbed into a flat Polish voice. Man, woman, child—whoever was speaking, all of the dialogue was voiced in the same droning, affectless tone by male actors known as lektors .

They both left Poland for university in the U.K. and then settled into tech jobs (Staniszewski at Palantir and Dabkowski at Google). Then, in 2021, Dabkowski was watching a film with his girlfriend and realized that Polish films were still dubbed in the same monotone lektor style. He and Staniszewski did some research and discovered that markets outside Poland were also relying on lektor -esque dubbing.

The next year, they founded ElevenLabs. AI voices were everywhere—think Alexa, or a car’s GPS—but actually good AI voices, they thought, would finally put an end to lektors . The tech giants have hundreds or thousands of employees working on AI, yet ElevenLabs, with a research team of just seven people, built a voice tool that’s arguably better than anything its competitors have released. The company poached researchers from top AI companies, yes, but it also hired a college dropout who’d won coding competitions, and another “who worked in call centers while exploring audio research as a side gig,” Staniszewski told me. “The audio space is still in its breakthrough stage,” Alex Holt, the company’s vice president of engineering, told me. “Having more people doesn’t necessarily help. You need those few people that are incredible.”

ElevenLabs knew its model was special when it started spitting out audio that accurately represented the relationships between words, Staniszewski told me—pronunciation that changed based on the context ( minute , the unit of time, instead of minute , the description of size) and emotion (an exclamatory phrase spoken with excitement or anger).

Much of what the model produces is unexpected—sometimes delightfully so. Early on, ElevenLabs’ model began randomly inserting applause breaks after pauses in its speech: It had been training on audio clips from people giving presentations in front of live audiences. Quickly, the model began to improve, becoming capable of ums and ahs . “We started seeing some of those human elements being replicated,” Staniszewski said. The big leap was when the model began to laugh like a person. (My voice clone, I should note, struggles to laugh, offering a machine-gun burst of “haha”s that sound jarringly inhuman.)

Compared with OpenAI and other major companies, which are trying to wrap their large language models around the entire world and ultimately build an artificial human intelligence, ElevenLabs has ambitions that are easier to grasp: a future in which ALS patients can still communicate in their voice after they lose their speech. Audiobooks that are ginned up in seconds by self-published authors, video games in which every character is capable of carrying on a dynamic conversation, movies and videos instantly dubbed into any language. A sort of Spotify of voices, where anyone can license clones of their voice for others to use—to the dismay of professional voice actors. The gig-ification of our vocal cords.

What Staniszewski also described when talking about ElevenLabs is a company that wants to eliminate language barriers entirely. The dubbing tool, he argued, is its first step toward that goal. A user can upload a video, and the model will translate the speaker’s voice into a different language. When we spoke, Staniszewski twice referred to the Babel fish from the science-fiction book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy —he described making a tool that immediately translates every sound around a person into a language they can understand.

Every ElevenLabs employee I spoke with perked up at the mention of this moonshot idea. Although ElevenLabs’ current product might be exciting, the people building it view current dubbing and voice cloning as a prelude to something much bigger. I struggled to separate the scope of Staniszewski’s ambition from the modesty of our surroundings: a shared conference room one floor beneath the company’s sparse office space. ElevenLabs may not achieve its lofty goals, but I was still left unmoored by the reality that such a small collection of people could build something so genuinely powerful and release it into the world, where the rest of us have to make sense of it.

E levenLabs’ voice bots launched in beta in late January 2023. It took very little time for people to start abusing them. Trolls on 4chan used the tool to make deepfakes of celebrities saying awful things. They had Emma Watson reading Mein Kampf and the right-wing podcaster Ben Shapiro making racist comments about Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In the tool’s first days, there appeared to be virtually no guardrails. “Crazy weekend,” the company tweeted , promising to crack down on misuse.

ElevenLabs added a verification process for cloning; when I uploaded recordings of my voice, I had to complete multiple voice CAPTCHAs, speaking phrases into my computer in a short window of time to confirm that the voice I was duplicating was my own. The company also decided to limit its voice cloning strictly to paid accounts and announced a tool that lets people upload audio to see if it is AI generated. But the safeguards from ElevenLabs were “half-assed,” Hany Farid, a deepfake expert at UC Berkeley, told me—an attempt to retroactively focus on safety only after the harm was done. And they left glaring holes. Over the past year, the deepfakes have not been rampant, but they also haven’t stopped.

I first started reporting on deepfakes in 2017, after a researcher came to me with a warning of a terrifying future where AI-generated audio and video would bring about an “infocalypse” of impersonation, spam, nonconsensual sexual imagery, and political chaos, where we would all fall into what he called “reality apathy.” Voice cloning already existed, but it was crude: I used an AI voice tool to try to fool my mom, and it worked only because I had the halting, robotic voice pretend I was losing cell service. Since then, fears of an infocalypse have lagged behind the technology’s ability to distort reality. But ElevenLabs has closed the gap.

The best deepfake I’ve seen was from the filmmaker Kenneth Lurt, who used ElevenLabs to clone Jill Biden’s voice for a fake advertisement where she’s made to look as if she’s criticizing her husband over his handling of the Israel-Gaza conflict. The footage, which deftly stitches video of the first lady giving a speech with an ElevenLabs voice-over, is incredibly convincing and has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. The ElevenLabs technology on its own isn’t perfect. “It’s the creative filmmaking that actually makes it feel believable,” Lurt said in an interview in October, noting that it took him a week to make the clip.

“It will totally change how everyone interacts with the internet, and what is possible,” Nathan Lambert, a researcher at the Allen Institute for AI, told me in January. “It’s super easy to see how this will be used for nefarious purposes.” When I asked him if he was worried about the 2024 elections, he offered a warning: “People aren’t ready for how good this stuff is and what it could mean.” When I pressed him for hypothetical scenarios, he demurred, not wanting to give anyone ideas.

A few days after Lambert and I spoke, his intuitions became reality. The Sunday before the New Hampshire presidential primary, a deepfaked, AI-generated robocall went out to registered Democrats in the state. “What a bunch of malarkey,” the robocall began . The voice was grainy, its cadence stilted, but it was still immediately recognizable as Joe Biden’s drawl. “Voting this Tuesday only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again,” it said, telling voters to stay home. In terms of political sabotage, this particular deepfake was relatively low stakes, with limited potential to disrupt electoral outcomes (Biden still won in a landslide). But it was a trial run for an election season that could be flooded with reality-blurring synthetic information.

Researchers and government officials scrambled to locate the origin of the call. Weeks later, a New Orleans–based magician confessed that he’d been paid by a Democratic operative to create the robocall. Using ElevenLabs, he claimed, it took him less than 20 minutes and cost $1.

Afterward, ElevenLabs introduced a “no go”–voices policy, preventing users from uploading or cloning the voice of certain celebrities and politicians. But this safeguard, too, had holes. In March, a reporter for 404 Media managed to bypass the system and clone both Donald Trump’s and Joe Biden’s voices simply by adding a minute of silence to the beginning of the upload file. Last month, I tried to clone Biden’s voice, with varying results. ElevenLabs didn’t catch my first attempt, for which I uploaded low-quality sound files from YouTube videos of the president speaking. But the cloned voice sounded nothing like the president’s—more like a hoarse teenager’s. On my second attempt, ElevenLabs blocked the upload, suggesting that I was about to violate the company’s terms of service.

For Farid, the UC Berkeley researcher, ElevenLabs’ inability to control how people might abuse its technology is proof that voice cloning causes more harm than good. “They were reckless in the way they deployed the technology,” Farid said, “and I think they could have done it much safer, but I think it would have been less effective for them.”

The core problem of ElevenLabs—and the generative-AI revolution writ large—is that there is no way for this technology to exist and not be misused. Meta and OpenAI have built synthetic voice tools, too, but have so far declined to make them broadly available. Their rationale: They aren’t yet sure how to unleash their products responsibly. As a start-up, though, ElevenLabs doesn’t have the luxury of time. “The time that we have to get ahead of the big players is short,” Staniszewski said, referring to the company’s research efforts. “If we don’t do it in the next two to three years, it’s going to be very hard to compete.” Despite the new safeguards, ElevenLabs’ name is probably going to show up in the news again as the election season wears on. There are simply too many motivated people constantly searching for ways to use these tools in strange, unexpected, even dangerous ways.

I n the basement of a Sri Lankan restaurant on a soggy afternoon in London, I pressed Staniszewski about what I’d been obliquely referring to as “the bad stuff.” He didn’t avert his gaze as I rattled off the ways ElevenLabs’ technology could be and has been abused. When it was his time to speak, he did so thoughtfully, not dismissively; he appears to understand the risks of his products and other open-source AI tools. “It’s going to be a cat-and-mouse game,” he said. “We need to be quick.”

Later, over email, he cited the “no go”–voices initiative and told me that ElevenLabs is “testing new ways to counteract the creation of political content,” adding more human moderation and upgrading its detection software. The most important thing ElevenLabs is working on, Staniszewski said—what he called “the true solution”—is digitally watermarking synthetic voices at the point of creation so civilians can identify them. That will require cooperation across dozens of companies: ElevenLabs recently signed an accord with other AI companies, including Anthropic and OpenAI, to combat deepfakes in the upcoming elections, but so far, the partnership is mostly theoretical.

The uncomfortable reality is that there aren’t a lot of options to ensure bad actors don’t hijack these tools. “We need to brace the general public that the technology for this exists,” Staniszewski said. He’s right, yet my stomach sinks when I hear him say it. Mentioning media literacy, at a time when trolls on Telegram channels can flood social media with deepfakes, is a bit like showing up to an armed conflict in 2024 with only a musket.

The conversation went on like this for a half hour, followed by another session a few weeks later over the phone. A hard question, a genuine answer, my own palpable feeling of dissatisfaction. I can’t look at ElevenLabs and see beyond the risk: How can you build toward this future? Staniszewski seems unable to see beyond the opportunities: How can’t you build toward this future? I left our conversations with a distinct sense that the people behind ElevenLabs don’t want to watch the world burn. The question is whether, in an industry where everyone is racing to build AI tools with similar potential for harm, intentions matter at all.

To focus only on deepfakes elides how ElevenLabs and synthetic audio might reshape the internet in unpredictable ways. A few weeks before my visit, ElevenLabs held a hackathon, where programmers fused the company’s tech with hardware and other generative-AI tools. Staniszewski said that one team took an image-recognition AI model and connected it to both an Android device with a camera and ElevenLabs’ text-to-speech model. The result was a camera that could narrate what it was looking at. “If you’re a tourist, if you’re a blind person and want to see the world, you just find a camera,” Staniszewski said. “They deployed that in a weekend.”

Repeatedly during my visit, ElevenLabs employees described these types of hybrid projects—enough that I began to see them as a helpful way to imagine the next few years of technology. Products that all hook into one another herald a future that’s a lot less recognizable. More machines talking to machines; an internet that writes itself ; an exhausting, boundless comingling of human art and human speech with AI art and AI speech until, perhaps, the provenance ceases to matter.

I came to London to try to wrap my mind around the AI revolution. By staring at one piece of it, I thought, I would get at least a sliver of certainty about what we’re barreling toward. Turns out, you can travel across the world, meet the people building the future, find them to be kind and introspective, ask them all of your questions, and still experience a profound sense of disorientation about this new technological frontier. Disorientation. That’s the main sense of this era—that something is looming just over the horizon, but you can’t see it. You can only feel the pit in your stomach. People build because they can. The rest of us are forced to adapt.

This article previously misquoted Staniszewski as calling his background an "investor story."