Taking a Page from Snapchat, Instagram Launches a New 'Stories' Feature
Instagram’s newly announced Stories feature should definitely sound familiar to any fan of Snapchat.
Your story
Instead of appearing on the normal Instagram profile grid or feed, Stories from people you follow will appear in a bar at the top of the app. When there’s something new, the profile photo will be surrounded with a colorful ring.
There’s no way to directly comment on a story – you’ll need to send a private message using Instagram Direct.
Everything posted to Stories can be customized with text and drawing tools and will disappear after 24 hours.
Instagram also allows users to customize the privacy settings for the Stories. Here’s more from a blog post:
Your story follows the privacy settings of your account. If you set your account to private, your story is visible only to your followers. However, you can also easily hide your entire story from anyone you don’t want to see it, even if they follow you. When watching your own story, swipe up to check out who’s seen each photo and video. You can even choose to feature a particular part of your story by posting it on your profile.
Wrap-up
Instagram can be downloaded now on the App Store for free. It’s designed for the iPhone/iPod touch.
The Stories feature will be rolling out to iOS devices “over the next few weeks.” Some users are already reporting that they can access the feature.
