There’s no doubt about the popularity of Snapchat these days. The service has definitely gotten more popular each and every day, and it’s a bit surprising. Seeing as everything you post on Snapchat disappears after 24 hours (privately posted photos and videos disappear after the user has viewed them). This feature is so popular, that Instagram has basically copied it. Actually, that’s exactly what they did, even the name for this feature is the same. Instagram Stories was announced today. And will be rolling out globally over the next few weeks, on both iOS and Android.
Instagram Stories is a way for you to continue sharing your day on Instagram, without worrying about over posting. Much like Snapchat, with Instagram Stories, you are able to draw and be pretty creative with these images and videos on your story. These pictures will disappear forever, after 24 hours as well. The best thing about it, is the fact that these pictures and videos will not appear on your profile. But users are able to follow your Instagram Story, which will appear at the top of the timeline section of the app. Those that might be worried about the privacy of Instagram Stories, don’t be. It follows the privacy settings that you have set on your account. So if its set to private, then only people you allow to follow you, can see them.
This is a way for Instagram to get their users to use the service a bit more than they already do. Which is the whole purpose of them adding any feature to their service, actually. Instagram wants to be the place where you share all of your moments. And this way you can share anything and everything to Instagram without it all appearing on your profile, which could be an issue for some. Especially those that may represent a business or company. Instagram has said that Instagram Stories will be rolling out over the next few weeks. There’s no word on if that means a new version of the app is coming too, or if it is just a server-side update here.
