• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, April 15, 2019

In limited testing, Facebook is combining two of its biggest features: News Feed and Stories.

The hybrid interface was first noticed by software engineer Jane Manchun Wong, who tweeted about her discovery on Monday. “This integrates Posts and Stories into one, allowing users to consume both within the same reel of content,” she wrote.

Applying the Stories model to News Feed, a select number of users can swipe through New Feed posts from left to right -- rather than scrolling up and down. 

For most users, Facebook’s News Feed and Stories feature remain separate and distinct.

Whether Facebook is planning a broader shift in its interface offerings to be seen. For Facebook, Stories has proven to be a major success.

Over the past year, Nanigans recently said its ad clients increased budgets dedicated to the mobile format by 124%, on average.

For Stories, click-through rates, CPMs and cost-per clicks also enjoyed significant year-over-year increases, according to the Facebook-focused ad platform.

Indeed, CTRs increased 52% from fourth quarter 2017 to 2018; CPMs jumped 112%; and CPCs grew by a 39%.

Of course, News Feed (not including Stories) remains responsible for the majority of ad spending among Nanigans’ customers.

More broadly, Facebook has big changes in store for its flagship platform. Cofounder-CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently unveiled an ambitious plan to redefine private, encrypted messaging platforms.