Instagram adds ‘I voted’ stickers to Stories

With less than a week to go before election day, Instagram is adding a new feature it hopes will give users a little extra incentive to vote.

The app is adding “I Voted” stickers to Stories, and will create “We Voted” Stories showing you everyone you follow who has voted and used the stickers.

Both the stickers and the Stories will appear in the app next week. The stickers will start to show up two days before election day, on November 4, and the Stories will appear on election day November 6. When you add an “I voted” sticker to your Story, it will also link out to polling locations (via Get to the Polls) so your follower can find local polling stations. 

If three or more of your friends use the stickers, then Instagram will create a “We Voted” Story, which will appear at the top of your feed, showing you the posts from everyone who has voted.

It may sound like a small feature, but it could end up having a significant impact. Facebook has been urging users to vote on election day for years, and those efforts have paid off, according to the company. Facebook found, as far back as 2010, that people who saw “I voted” posts and stickers from their friends were actually more likely to vote themselves. (Facebook’s researchers published a study on their findings in Nature.)

Facebook still has its own “I voted” feature, along with a host of other election-related features. But, considering that Instagram is now the social media platform of choice for so many young people, the new stickers and Stories could end up having an even greater impact on the group.