Yesterday Instagram launched a new feature called “Stories”, which strikes a remarkable resemblance to Snapchat.
Instagram stories allows users to share a series of photos and videos and customise them with text, drawings and emojis in a slideshow format which will then appear at the top of your followers news feed.
When a story has been published, their profile photo will have a colourful ring around it.
To view someone’s story, just tap on their profile photo. Unlike regular posts, if you would like to comment you have to do so as a private message via Instagram Direct as there are no likes or public comments.
If your profile is private, only your followers will be able to view your story. However you do have the option to hide your story from anyone you don’t want to see it. To view who has seen your story, swipe up when viewing your own to check out who’s seen each photo and video.
The stories will disappear after 24 hours and won’t appear on your profile grid or in feed.
This will allow brands to have more freedom when promoting themselves on the platform. For example they can showcase certain events, offers or deals for 24 hours, creating a sense of urgency for users to follow them and of course make those that do feel as though they are part of something.
Personal users will be able to give a visual commentary of their day in a more memorable and interactive way to their followers.
Not everybody is pleased though, with many taking to Twitter to voice their disappointment that this feature is too similar to Snapchat:
When Snapchat saw Instagram's update today. pic.twitter.com/9ndZn8LESy
— RG (@redgaskell) August 2, 2016
accurate representation of #InstagramStories pic.twitter.com/2wgxrWClIe
— Common White Girl (@girlposts) August 2, 2016
While others have posted Instagram wishlists, such as this tweet:
y'all claim to listen,so why are we getting the opposite of what we're asking for @instagram? #InstagramStories pic.twitter.com/aJk4fa7b1Y
— jay (@purposebieber) August 2, 2016
As keen Instagrammers though we are very keen to see what content appears when the Stories is fully rolled out and are looking forward to working with our clients’ stories!
Instagram has said on their official blog post that Stories will be rolling out globally over the next few weeks on iOS and Android.
