Instagram’s Stories (Credit: http://blog.instagram.com/post/148348940287/160802-stories)
Instagram on Tuesday launched a Snapchat-like feature called “Stories.” The feature is the company’s big step towards boosting its growth rate and give its rivals a run for their money. “Stories” will encourage users to post stories about their lives as often as they could.
Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom didn’t deny the fact that the new feature was taken out of the books of Snapchat. When asked to confirm if that was the case, he said: “They deserve all the credit”, insisting that “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,” per TechCrunch.
Instagram’s Stories (Credit: http://blog.instagram.com/post/148348940287/160802-stories)
The new feature, which is expected to be available to both Android and iOS from today, adds a new row of circular avatars at the top of your Instagram feed. Your followers will be able to see your posts without needing to create a new audience in a third-party app.
“Today, we’re introducing Instagram Stories, a new feature that lets you share all the moments of your day, not just the ones you want to keep on your profile. As you share multiple photos and videos, they appear together in a slideshow format: your story,” the company wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.
Stories is geared towards radically changing how people use Instagram; and could boost its growing 300 million daily users. Recall that Snapchat’s Stories was a huge success, and helped in boosting the platform’s user base.
Instagram’s Stories (Credit: http://66.media.tumblr.com/6d0a210ccc7678ea63e1b34d8f0292bc/tumblr_inline_ob956ls0Kf1svf3j7_540.jpg)
Using Stories on Instagram
Using Instagram’s latest feature Stories is quite easy. First, you have to create a post for your public story by tapping a new stylized “+” icon placed at the top-left hand corner of the app (your screen). Alternatively, Snapchat said you can reveal the story camera by swiping left. The Instagram story camera features three drawing tools, including normal pen, a highlighter that allows you to accentuate text by coloring underneath it, a neon pen that draws in white neon color borders.
Like Snapchat, Instagram’s Stories will only be available for 24 hours after which it disappears. This solves the problem of over posting as it gives you the freedom to share as much posts as you wish throughout the day. “You can bring your story to life in new ways with text and drawing tools. The photos and videos will disappear after 24 hours and won’t appear on your profile grid or in feed.”
No “likes or “public comments”
Want to comment on a post you like? Instagram’s new feature is different from the regular posts where you can like and post comments publicly. However, you can tap and send private messages to the person on Instagram Direct.
Instagram’s Stories (http://66.media.tumblr.com/8ba3d1fcb29439f6025cecb4a9d458c7/tumblr_inline_ob956rLUx01svf3j7_540.jpg)
Don’t want your stories to be visible to everyone? That’s no problem because you can set your account to private because Stories works with the privacy setting of your Instagram account. As a matter of fact, you can prevent your followers from seeing your stories. You can swipe up to view people who have seen your pictures and videos when watching your own story.
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