Web Stories — tap-through video stories

Short vertical videos and photos your readers tap through like a WhatsApp status — on your website, under your news stories and on Google.

5 min readUpdated 2 Oct 2026

In this guide

Web Stories are short, full-screen stories your readers tap through on their phone — the way they already watch a WhatsApp or Instagram status. Make one from a few vertical videos and photos, add a line of words on each page and a "Read more" button, and publish. It shows on your website straight away, and Google can show it too.

What your readers see

On your website, live stories appear as a row of story circles or portrait cards. A reader taps one and it opens full screen:

Tap the right side for the next page, the left side to go back.
Hold anywhere to pause; let go to carry on.
Swipe sideways for the next or previous story, swipe down to close.
Swipe up (or tap the button) to open the page's "Read more" link.
Sound plays after the tap that opened the story; the speaker button mutes it, and the choice is remembered.
The share button opens the phone's share sheet (WhatsApp and the rest), or copies the link on a computer.
On a computer the story plays in a phone-shaped card with arrows; the keyboard works too (← → space, M, Esc).
A circle turns grey once the reader has watched that story, just like a status.

Tap a circleopens full screen
Pages playtap to skip, hold to pause
Read moreswipe up to your news story
Next storystarts by itself

One story, start to finish

Make a web story

Open Web Stories

In your sidebar open Web Stories (on a phone: News Desk → Web Stories), then tap + New web story.

Add pages

Tap + Video, + Photos or + Text. You can pick several photos at once — each one becomes a page. A video can be up to 60 seconds; vertical videos fill the phone screen best. While a video uploads you will see its progress on the page; we turn it into one phone-ready copy before it goes on your site.

Put words on each page

Give the story a title (it shows on the first page and on Google). On each page you can add a heading, a line or two of words (up to 280 letters), a photo credit, and choose whether the words sit at the Top, Middle or Bottom. Photos and text pages stay on screen for the seconds you choose; a video page plays its whole clip.

Add a Read more button (optional)

Switch on 'Read more' button on this page and pick one of your news stories or paste any link. If you link the whole web story to a news story in Story settings, the last page gets a "Read the full story" button by itself — and that news story shows a "Watch this as a web story" button.

Preview, then publish

▶ Preview plays your draft in the same player your readers get. When it looks right, tap Publish — or Schedule it for a time you choose. Changes to a live story go up when you tap Update live story.

Already wrote the news report? Tap Make from a news storyand pick it — we build a draft from that story's own video, photos and summary, with a "Read the full story" button on the last page. Nothing is invented; you can change every page before publishing.

Where your stories show

Home pageYour design's Web Stories band shows your live stories

Any page, anywhereWebsite editor → Add section → News → Web Stories

Under every news storyA Web Stories row, your story's section first

One page with all of them/web-stories/ (also linked in your menu)

Google SearchEach story has its own Google Web Story page

The Web Stories section can be placed at the top of a page, between any two sections or at the bottom. Choose how it looks — Circles (like WhatsApp status), Portrait cards or Big cards— and, if you like, show only one section's stories (for example, only Sports).

Story settings

Cover — the picture in the circles, cards and on Google. Automatic uses the first picture.
Section and Language — for filtering and for Google.
Show for 24 hours only — like a WhatsApp status: it leaves your website 24 hours after it goes live. You can publish it again any time.
Play the next story automatically — when this story ends, the reader's next story starts.
Pin to the front — pinned stories lead every row.

What makes a good web story

Do this

Shoot vertical (phone held upright).
Keep each page short — under 15 seconds of video, two lines of words.
Use 5 to 10 pages that tell one thing well.
End with a Read more button to your full report.
Write what is in each photo in "What is in the picture".

Not this

Don't put long paragraphs on a page — readers tap on in seconds.
Don't use blurry or tiny pictures — they fill the whole screen.
Don't bake the words into the video; type them on the page so they stay sharp.
Don't upload a 5-minute clip — split it into pages of up to 60 seconds.

Example · A district daily in Nashik

At 7 am the reporter films three 12-second clips at the onion mandi. In Web Stories she taps + Video three times, types "Onion down ₹4 a kilo" on the first page, adds a text page "What it means for your kitchen", links the story to the full mandi report and turns on Show for 24 hours only. The circles on the home page show it within a minute, and by the next morning it has left by itself.

Views and how many watched to the end

Each story card in Web Stories shows how many readers opened it and what share watched it to the last page. A reader is counted once every six hours, and the numbers update about every 30 minutes.

Taking a story down or deleting it

More → Take off the website turns a live story back into a draft. Delete removes it from your website straight away; it stays in Deleted for 30 days, where Restore brings it back. After 30 days it is removed for good, and videos it no longer uses are cleared out so they stop using space.

Why is my video refused?

A story page can be at most 60 seconds and 300 MB. Trim the clip, or split it into two pages. A 60-second clip recorded at 1080p fits; a 4K recording may not — switch your camera to 1080p for stories. Whatever you upload, your website stores a small, phone-ready copy.

Does a web story slow my website down?

No. The rows are light pictures; the story player loads only when a reader is about to open a story, and videos start streaming only for the page being watched (plus the next one, so it plays without waiting).

Will Google show my stories?

Every live story gets a Google Web Story page that follows Google's rules and is listed for Google to find. Google decides what it shows; stories with real video, a clear title under 70 characters and a good cover do best.

Can my staff make stories?

Yes — anyone on your team who can manage news stories can make, edit and publish web stories.