Instagram emulates Snapchat with ‘Stories’ feature
The photo-sharing app recently unveiled a feature that enables users to share live video and pictures, but many criticized the copycat move.
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
On Monday, the company unveiled “Instagram Stories”—and in doing so, took a direct stab at competitor Snapchat.
In a major product change, the Facebook FB -1.00%-owned company is making a push to encourage more frequent, in-the-moment sharing. On Tuesday, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company began rolling out a new ephemeral sharing tool called “Instagram Stories” that heavily mimics the core Snapchat feature of the same name. Stories lets users add full-screen photos and videos, overlayed with text, emojis, filters and bright drawings in a slideshow of content that disappears after 24 hours. Users can choose to save the clips to their camera roll or share them on their traditional Instagram profile, where they can still post filtered photos and videos per usual. Users can capture clips for Stories through an in-app camera, or share camera roll content that is up to 24 hours old.
Become a Ragan Insider member to read this article and all other archived content.
Sign up today
Already a member? Log in here.
Learn more about Ragan Insider.
