Forget the Tidal vs. Apple Music streaming wars. The showdown between Instagram and Snapchat, i.e. the places we go to prove our existence, just got way more interesting. Instagram has launched the strategically named Instagram Stories, a new feature that, as you might have guessed, allows users to share multiple photos and videos in a slideshow format for easy consumption. The company will also be rolling out a "discovery" feature page. Sound familiar?
"With Instagram Stories, you don’t have to worry about overposting," the company said in a press release Tuesday. "Instead, you can share as much as you want throughout the day—with as much creativity as you want. You can bring your story to life in new ways with text and drawing tools. The photos and videos will disappear after 24 hours and won't appear on your profile grid or in feed."
For all the privacy nerds out there, don't worry. Instagram’s got you. A user's story follows the same privacy settings of the rest of your account, meaning a private account's stories would only be visible to that user's followers. For added story control, users can individually hide their stories from users, even if they follow you. Perfect for all the lames you're not yet brave enough to purge from social media!
The competition between Instagram and Snapchat, rather real or imagined, showed its first signs of turn-up back in June with the realization that Snapchat had jumped over the 'gram in one all-important metric: the amount of time spent on the app. According to additional analysis from asset management firm Piper Jaffray, Snapchat has also become teens' "most important" social network of choice.
Your move, Snapchat!
