We’ve seen leading industries imitate the trends and practices of their competitors to gain a leading edge numerous times. Facebook invented the coveted feed display that is now prevalent across numerous platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn. Twitter, in turn, brought hashtags to our chronological feeds, something that was soon adopted by Facebook, Instagram and other competitors. Instagram itself was bought by Facebook for a whopping $1 billion and soon became one of the world’s leading photo and video sharing services. Another popular photo and video sharing service is, of course, Snapchat which promoted the idea of sharing pictures and videos that can only be seen once, or for a maximum time of 24 hours on its “Story” feature. And yesterday, Instagram rolled out its own version of Stories, which is nearly identical.
It’s no secret that Facebook once offered to buy Snapchat for a whopping $3 billion, an offer that was declined, which must have sent rumbles through Facebook’s California headquarters. Three years after that rejection, the company has come out with a new version of Instagram that features many of Snapchat’s core traits.
“With Instagram Stories, you don’t have to worry about overposting. Instead, you can share as much as you want throughout the day — with as much creativity as you want. 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.”
To view someone’s Story, one merely has to tap on someone’s profile picture and navigating the stories is quite intuitive and easy, you’ll just have to tap to go back and forward or swipe to jump to another person’s story. Unlike regular posts, there are no public likes and comments, you can reply to someone’s Story via Instagram Direct. Stories will also follow the privacy setting of your Instagram account and you can even prevent someone who’s following you from viewing your Story.
While it is similar to Snapchat, there are a few minute, mostly aesthetic differences when it comes to editing a Story. For instance, rather than simple colours, you can opt for neon lights to draw on your Story and has significantly better filter options. All that’s lacking are some facial recognition filters.
Instagram is also in the process of implementing a censorship filter.
What do you think of Instagram Stories? Let us know in the comments below!
Source: Instagram
