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First it was MySpace, then Facebook, and eventually Instagram became the go-to destination for kids looking to share their lives on the net. Right now, Snapchat is the hottest thing in social media, so it only makes sense that competing services are in a scramble, doing whatever they can to “imitate” some of its better features in hopes keeping their users from jumping ship.
In a new blog post today, Instagram announced a few feature headed to the social network, one you’re probably already familiar with if you’ve ever used Snapchat. They’re calling it Stories — yes, the exact same name of Snapchat’s feature — and it gives users the ability to share a temporary slideshow of photos/videos with friends. Like Snapchat, media posted in Stories are timed, limited to 24 hours before they expire. Oh, and you can only upload photos/videos that are less than 24 hours old in an effort to keep things fresh.
There’s no public commenting (although you can send private comments on whatever Snap er, Gram you’re currently viewing) and no way to like a Story. You can see exactly who has viewed your story in case you want to make sure your selfies are having a profound impact on the world.
This is actually so drastically different from the direction Instagram — it’s a complete overhaul if there ever was one. While some are still getting over the steep learning curve that comes with Snapchat, most people are already familiar with the way Instagram works. Adding Snapchat-like temporary stories, however blatant, really is a smart move — we just don’t know why they didn’t do it sooner.
Oddly enough, one feature Instagram didn’t imitate was Snapchat’s 3D Lenses / Face Swap. Of course, we imagine that could be added in a future update. In the meantime, the new Stories update is said to be rolling out in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out in the Play Store to try it for yourself.
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