Instagram, the app famous for allowing us to share highlights of our oh-so-amazing lives, launched a new feature on Tuesday that we may already use on another social media platform *cough, cough, Snapchat?*
Instagram Stories are exactly what they sound like. These 24-hour photo and video slideshows will appear at the top of your feed. The only difference between Insta Stories and Snap Stories? You don’t have to move apps to enjoy both.
You’re probably thinking this is a literal ripoff of Snapchat, and Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom completely understands. “They deserve all the credit,” Systrom told TechCrunch. “This isn’t about who invented something. This is about a format, and how you take it to a network and put your own spin on it.” Hm…
Systrom said Stories works as a medium for sharing content that a user may think isn’t “good enough” to have directly on his or her Insta-feed. “It basically solves a problem for all these people who want to take a ton of photos of an event or something in their lives, but want to manage what their profile looks like and not bomb feed, obviously, as that’s one of the no-nos on Instagram,” he said.
Like Snapchat Stories, Instagram Stories last 24 hours and have a 10-second maximum. You can adorn your Stories with text, drawings, emojis and filters. You can see who has viewed your Story. You can tap through other users Stories. Okay, are we having deja vu or is this just ridiculous?
We must say, some differences will make many Story-lovers happy. Instagram Stories don’t tell you who has screenshotted a Story. You can also pause a Story or swipe left to go back. You can’t save a whole day’s story the way you can on Snapchat (but does anyone honestly like that feature anyway?).
Instagram, the app that has championed the like-to-minute ratio, believes that Stories are the future of the app ––all the sharing with none of the pressure! The update is set to roll out over the next few weeks on both iPhone and Android devices. We can’t wait for this one!