A couple of weeks ago, Snapchat landed itself a new update called “Memories” which was an Instagram inspired feature. They borrowed the idea of eliminating transiency to shift towards more permanency of moments. Little did they know that Instagram wouldn’t just sit back and watch it happen, they got back worse with introducing- Instagram Stories.
Stealing ideas on social media isn’t a rare sight but to witness a rip-off so blatant was an exciting thing to watch. Well if you haven’t guessed already, Instagram Stories is a brazen rip-off of Snapchat Stories, a feature Snapchat introduced way back in 2013.
Now there, there Instagram. We don’t want to be so blatant with our judgements over your new accomplishment. Let’s try and see what Instagram Stories is actually like.
Getting Started:
First things first, get the new update. As soon as you open up Instagram’s home page, few circular icons will appear on the top of the feed. That would be the stories, and alongside would be Instagram debriefing you about the new feature.
Above it is a little plus icon. As soon as you click on it, the front camera opens. That’s the “Add Your Story” icon. Meh, Snapchat imitators.
Now here comes something interesting. While Snapchat hasn’t updated its doodle objects in quite a while, Instagram offers some newness to theirs. The glowing neon pen is adorbs, to be honest. And guess what? Screenshot any story, nobody will notice.
When it comes to uploading a video, the time limit is still ten seconds but here’s the Instagram’s signature move- you can add some of the Instagram filters to your video. And just like Snapchat, you can swipe up and see the viewers of your story.
Swipe down on the front facing camera screen; you’ll see something more creative. You can add stories of images or videos from your Camera Roll that had been clicked in the past 24 hours. It took Snapchat a long time to add this feature. Not to mention that weird frame they put around a photo that is borrowed from the Camera Roll. Ugh.
There is another brilliant feature in Instagram Stories. The bottom right corner on your story screen features three dots. These three dots let you control and pick privacy for your story. In just a click, you could easily hide it from let’s say, an ex who still follows you. In Snapchat, it takes more than even a few minutes to do the same thing.
You can also send direct messages for appreciation of a story. The photo will disappear, but the messages will last.
And well, there you go. That’s about it for Instagram Stories.
LivED It Scorecard:
While there’s been a lot of bad light on this move of Instagram’s, it is actually not that terrible. So what, now we have two places to put stories on. Big deal! Social media lovers will get adapted to this soon enough. Besides, Snapchat is much more complex when it comes to actually browsing and adding people. Instagram might own Snapchat with this addition. But since Instagram unarguably stole the concept, implemented some hands-on features and built it on a much similar to snapchat UI, we rate them as:
| CRITERION | RATING (OUT OF 5) |
| Concept | 1.0 |
| User Interface | 3.5 |
| Features | 4.0 |
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