Good news: You’ll probably never have to see one of those semi-sincere “Sorry for double posting!” Instagram captions ever again.
Why? Because Instagram just made it possible for users to post pictures on the app all day, every day, without messing up the perfect Insta-profile #aesthetic that they’ve worked so hard to achieve.
https://vimeo.com/177180549
The feature, Instagram Stories, is described as “a new feature that lets you share all the moments of your day, not just the ones you want to keep on your profile.”
Hmmm. Okay. Sounds sort of familiar, but I suppose all social platforms are geared toward sharing moments from your day, right?
“As you share multiple photos and videos, they appear together in a slideshow format: your story.”
Oh. Oh.
Instagram Stories lets users share photos and video clips with their friends for 24 hours. Sounds a little bit like Snapchat’s “My Story” feature. Actually, sounds exactly like it.
Naturally, ChatterBlast’s in-house Instagram extraordinaire Marc Snitzer tested out Instagram Stories on our account as well as his own.
We all know the drill by now: Every social platform wants to adopt its peers’ best features. If one app can do it all, users never have to leave, right?
It happened when Instagram introduced direct messaging.
It happened when Facebook tried the whole ‘disappearing chat messages’ thing.
It even happened when Twitter started offering ‘stickers’ — the app’s answer to Snapchat’s ability to add emojis and little images to photos before sharing.
So, even though this move isn’t exactly shocking, we’re still a little surprised by the blatant similarity in titling. Choosing “Instagram Stories” when “My Story” is already a thing? Couldn’t you have picked a slightly original title, Instagram?
Not only does Instagram Stories allow users to post photos that’ll eventually disappear, it also lets them use text and drawing tools, just like Snapchat does. (Leaving us with one question, of course: How long ‘til our ‘grams have geofilters?)
Other accounts with heavy Instagram followings, such as NASA, have already started to experiment with Instagram Stories:
What’s also interesting about this update is how Instagram has gone out of its way to refrain from acknowledging Snapchat in the slightest when introducing the feature.
According to The New York Times, “Kevin Systrom, co-founder and chief executive of Instagram, did not mention Snapchat by name in an interview about Instagram Stories, but obliquely referred to ‘competitors’ and acknowledged that ‘other companies deserve all the credit’ for popularizing disappearing photos and videos.”
Competitors, huh?
Snapchat has long been the social app for spur-of-the-moment, candid photos, whereas Instagram is home to painstakingly perfect pictures that are the visual proof of a user’s level of coolness.
Do users really want those worlds to become one? It might be easier to reserve a specific sort of visual storytelling for specific platforms, rather than leveling the playing field for all those photos that make you say, “Eh, it’ll only be up for 24 hours.”
On the other hand, the more potential homes for selfies, the merrier, right?
