December 2021 Update: From December 17 2021, the Gallery format was removed from Yandex Zen.
Yandex.Zen have began testing the stories post format.
These are more suitable for Zen bloggers who create visual content with smaller amounts of text.
Stories is a well-known and very popular media format, currently used by social media networks such as Instagram and Snapchat, that allows bloggers to post their photos and videos in stories up to 15 seconds long. Stories will be flipped automatically, and each of them is displayed for up to 15 seconds, then the next one is turned on.
Stories expire 24 hours after publication.
Stories will be launched gradually: at the first stage, part of the audience of the Zen application for Android will see them, and several hundred bloggers of the platform will be able to create stories. But over time, the format will become available to all mobile users.
At the same time, Zen is also testing gallery post formats.
Galleries are a series of pictures, each of which you can add a description. Each gallery can have up to 10 images, and the text in the description can contain up to 1000 characters.
Galleries can be viewed right in the Zen feed by side-scrolling images to the left.
This format is suitable for those who like to tell stories in pictures – create step-by-step guides, a series of photos, or DIY-instructions.
Both of these functions are expected to be rolled out to all Zen users by Summer 2020.
