INSTASNAP? SNAPAGRAM? What are Instagram Stories?
Instagram are trying to keep it fresh and funky and have just updated their app to include “stories”. Sound familiar? The new feature mirrors the function first introduced by Snapchat.
Instagram is a photo sharing network for people to keep their friends updated on their day to day lives, of their travels and for budding photographers amateur and professional alike to showcase their work. Aside being a social media app for personal use people also use this app as a way to promote their services, their business and their products. Instagram is essentially a free advertising service, advertising your happiness, your life and what you offer to the world. Are Instagram Stories a breath of fresh air, or a cheap imitation?
Snapchat is an app used for photo sharing but you can send photos directly to your friends and they disappear within 10 seconds. You also have the option of keeping it on your story and it stays up for 24 hours from the time you posted it before it disappears automatically. You can edit the photo with coloured filters, and draw over yourself creating a funny “masterpiece” within seconds and this is the idea that Instagram has now applied to their own app.
It is not uncommon for social media networks to mooch off each other’s ideas, but Instagram has quite literally taken a leaf out of Snapchat’s book and introduced their new feature Instagram Stories. The update also lets you see who have viewed your story, and a new feature which allows you the search through the likes on a post by typing in a username.
The premise behind this development is to allow Instagram users to provide their followers with a peek behind the scenes of their perfectly filtered photos and to give their app a personal touch.
Its a dog eat dog world out there and you have to do what you got to do to keep yourself in the game. Well played Instagram, we here at Loving Social Media cannot wait to see what Snapchat does next.