So, in a twist not many people saw coming but is blatantly obviously now that it’s here, Instagram have just added a new feature to their extremely popular photo sharing app and it’s called “Stories”.
Previously, Instagram would be your go to app to post those perfectly manicured photos of your most recent holiday or your amazing ‘food porn’ snaps but now, with this latest update, you can add your not so pretty photos and videos, along with the ability to write over your media and add filters (it is Instagram after all) to your ‘story’ with the knowledge that they will autodelete in 24 hours time.
These will appear at the top of your Instagram feed so you won’t have to do much digging to find them either.
If this all sounds unbelievably like Snapchat Stories, that’s because that’s exactly who they are ripping off. Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom went even as far to say “they (Snapchat) deserve all the credit!”
There are a few differences between the two features though but to start, let’s list their similarities:
Here’s what’s the same
- The Stories format places the last 24 hours of 10-second-max photos and videos you’ve shared into a slideshow you can tap to fast-forward through
- You can see who’s looked at your Story
- You can alter your photos with sketches, text, emojis and colour filters
- Everything you post disappears after the 24 hours is up.
- You shoot full-screen in the app or upload things from the last 24 hours of your camera roll (recently added to Snapchat with Memories)
- Your followers voluntarily tap in to view your Story, instead of it being pushed into a single feed
Here’s what’s different
- Instagram Stories appear in a row at the top of the main feed instead of on a separate screen like Snapchat, and are sorted by who you interact with most, not purely reverse chronological order like Snapchat
- Anyone you allow to follow you on Instagram can see your Instagram Stories, though you can also block people, as opposed to building a separate network on Snapchat
- You don’t have to be following someone to view their Instagram Stories, which can be viewed from their profile as long as they’re public
- You can swipe right or tap the Stories icon in the top left to open the Stories camera, as opposed to Snapchat defaulting to the camera
- You can’t save your whole day’s Story like on Snapchat, but you can post slides from your Story to the permanent Instagram feed
- Instagram currently lacks location filters, native selfie lens filters, stickers, 3D stickers and speed effects, but you can save content from third-party apps like Facebook-owned MSQRD and then share them
- You can’t add old content to Instagram Stories unless you reimport or screenshot, while Snapchat lets you share old Memories with a white border and timestamp around them
- Instagram offers custom color control for drawing with an easy picker, as well as pre-made palettes like earth-tones or grayscale, while Snapchat custom color control is much more clumsy
- You can’t see who screenshotted your Instagram Story, while Snapchat warns you
This new update is set to be pushed out over the coming weeks, what do you guys think? Is it too much of a blatant rip off of Snapchat Stories are are you happy to see this feature added to the app? Let us know in the comments below
