If you are familiar with the latest social media updates, then you must have heard about the new feature that Instagram has adopted. Yes, I am talking about the new Instagram Stories which is pretty much inspired by the famous Snapchat Stories that you have enjoyed all these time.
If you are not familiar with Snapchat, then let me tell you that Snapchat stories let you upload pictures or videos for around 10 seconds which gets self-deleted after 24 hours. This is different from the usual 1 to 10 seconds feature which Snapchat is known to offer when you upload contents.
Instagram has recently made use of this similar feature and it has already gained a lot of attention from users although the feature seems to be not fully in some regions. The question here is will Instagram Stories prove to be something more than Snapchat stories or will Snapchat remain undefeated in this social media war? For me, I will side with Instagram and here I will tell you why.
How to use Instagram Stories?
Before I delve deep into this matter, let me first introduce to you how you can make use of the Instagram Stories. The Instagram Stories is a complete rip off of the Snapchat stories, and it can be easily understood because the Instagram team did not even hesitate in putting similar name which Snapchat came up with. The name Instagram stories are thus not something new, but I would like to see some more upgrade in the way it works so that it becomes more unique to the Instagram in the days to come.
If you are not familiar with Snapchat Stories, then the whole thing might be new to you. So let me give you an insight into the matter and make you understand how it works.
- Click on the plus menu on the left corner of your Instagram news feed. This will make you ready to post a story.
- Tap on the circle button as you did earlier to click a new picture or press hold to record a new video.
- If you want to add any drawing or write something upon the picture press the buttons that are available on the top.
- If you want to add a filter, swipe your screen from left or right. You will find seven different options to choose from.
- Lastly, click on the Right mark in the bottom middle of the interface and confirm finally to upload your story.
- You can also save your story by clicking on the download option. Feel free to upload more contents like Boomerangs and pictures too.
- You can also do some privacy settings to make sure that your stories are only viewed by your friends. For that, you need to go to the Story Settings and do the necessary settings and select friends or block friends whatsoever.
This is how you can make use of the new Instagram Stories feature and who knows you might be the next Instagram stories celeb.
Will you blame Instagram for completely ripping off the feature?
No doubt the whole features will have the potential to become subject to a lifelong debate. But will you blame Instagram?
Let’s see what the CEO of Instagram has to say about their new improvement. The chief executive officer of Instagram, Kevin Systrom says that there is nothing wrong in giving credit to the Snapchat team for the Stories feature. In an interview, he even mentions that this trend of taking an already existing feature and improving it by other Social Media websites has been going on since time immemorial.
For an instance take the Newsfeed feature by Facebook which was later on adopted by sites like say Twitter or LinkedIn. Even Snapchat has adopted the face filters feature which we already knew and were familiar with.
I agree with him, and I am sure you will too because we have seen how a lot of already pre-existing features have been developed and improved by a famous social media sites and which later on became favorites.
But the problem here is that with already millions of followers at its disposal Instagram might steal the show.
Snapchat has not evolved
Keeping in mind all the improvements Instagram has made in the recent years, Snapchat seems to have remained ancient compared to Instagram. As a regular Snapchat user, I am still waiting for a better and user-friendly interface which Snapchat needs to start thinking about. But, I love Snapchat because of its amazing business and media demonstration.
Where else Instagram in very few days has already been able to attract people to post amazing Instagram Stories and gain attention. Although Snapchat has some good following, who are regularly uploading contents it has failed to gain that considerable number of attention which Instagram did in a very short time.
I myself prefer Instagram over Snapchat because of its amazing user interface and the up to date improvements which Instagram keeps on doing since the beginning.
Moreover, people from the age range of 25-35 hardly want to associate themselves with Snapchat, but almost all of them have a dedicated Instagram account. That’s why I believe Instagram Stories already has an advantage to completely win over this Snapchat’s invention.
What do the statistics say?
Now, let’s make some in-depth study of the whole scenario. Instagram in late June this year made this proud announcement that they already had 300 million daily users out of the 500 million accounts. This means that 300 million people are actively participating in making Instagram a regular phenomenon.
Snapchat, on the other hand, has only 150 million daily users who are active on a regular basis. This is not a good sign for Snapchat with the new Instagram feature picking up the pace. This clearly shows how vulnerable Snapchat is to Instagram’s latest upgrade.
Conclusion- Will Snapchat die?
It is quite evident that Snapchat is way down the line in this phenomenal race. Moreover, Snachat’s User Interface needs an upgrade so that it becomes less complicated but by the time the Snapchat team takes in any further steps Instagram will be coming up with more updates.
I love Instagram’s User Interface and no doubt I am enjoying these new Stories feature too. But as Snapchat goes on improving day by day although the pace is slow Instagram has already killed Snapchat Stories, and this will soon become the new crowd pulling feature that they have adopted till now.