LinkedIn is beginning to look a lot like Snapchat

Image: LinkedIn

It was only a matter of time: the Stories trend has officially made it to LinkedIn. Yes, that somebody-would-like-to-connect-with-you LinkedIn.

The professional networking service, never one to dive into a social media trend too quickly, is finally dipping its toe into the Stories format.

LinkedIn is testing its own Stories feature with some of its student users in the United States, the company has confirmed. The feature puts short video clips at the top of users’ feeds in the main app to show students about the activities of their classmates as well as those at nearby schools.

Like Snapchat or Instagram Stories, the videos are tappable and will only appear for a limited amount of time (seven days, according to a LinkedIn spokesperson). Unlike Instagram or Snapchat, though, each individual video can be up to 45 seconds — significant longer than the usual 10-second time limit.

The feature has been launching slowly over the past month, but will be available to all college students in the U.S. soon, according to the company. It’s not clear if LinkedIn has plans to expand it beyond university students or to bring it to schools in other countries.

But it appears to be aimed at getting more younger users engaged with the professional networking site. LinkedIn may not be as alluring to college students, who may not be ready to start their professional careers yet. 

And while adding Stories to the service is unlikely to make it as popular as Snapchat or LinkedIn, it could help students relate to the service better. Google gave a similar explanation earlier this year as its reasoning behind adopting the Stories format in search.

It’s also not the first time LinkedIn has experimented with features that look more like those of Facebook or Snapchat. The company has also experimented with Snapchat-style location filters for people to use at live events. The service also recently added a new events feature for its members to organize IRL meet-ups.