Instagram announced today that they now have more users using Stories than Snapchat has users. That’s pretty telling since Stories is basically Snapchat on Instagram, and it already has more users than the entire Snapchat platform. Since the announcement, Snap’s stock has been taking a pretty steep dive, as you could expect. That’s not all that Instagram announced today though. They also announced some new stickers for both Stories and Direct (direct messaging). One of the cooler stickers is a selfie sticker, where you can take pictures of yourself and use it as a sticker on your photo, a great way to really express yourself.
There also some new geo stickers included in this update, but it’s only for four cities at this time. So if you are traveling to, or live in Chicago, London, Madrid or Tokyo, you’ll be able to use these stickers. These are stickers that are in addition to the usual location, temperature and other stickers that are available basically everywhere. It’s something that Snapchat has had for a little bit, but in the form of filters, and now they are finally coming to some of the cities around the world on Instagram. Finally, Instagram is adding a hands-free mode for Stories. So instead of having to hold down the record button to record a video for Stories, you can hold it down for a few seconds until it starts then record your video. This makes it easier for those that want to record a video and also star in the video. It’s a feature that users have been asking for from Snapchat for quite some time as well.
These changes are rolling out now in an updated version of Instagram for iOS and Android. Over on Android it’s version 10.16.1 and on iOS it is 10.16. You should see it in the Google Play Store today, and it should be hitting your device in the next few days, if you don’t sideload the APK once that becomes available. This is a staged rollout as is often the case when it comes to updated apps, so it could take a few days to reach your device(s).
