Update 31/08/2017
You can now view Instagram Stories on the web. The Facebook-owned company has expanded its successful Snapchat-a-like feature to work in the browser version of its photo-sharing service.
Like on mobiles, Stories will appear at the top of the feed and a simple click will make them viewable. To skip through the inevitable boring stories it's possible to use the left and right arrows on the keyboard. In the future, the company says, it will also be possible to post stories from both mobiles and browser web views. Snapchat says 250 million people use the Stories feature each day.
Original story: 13/07/2017
Instagram is going really hard on its Stories feature. Since it launched last August, the app has made regular updates to build on the Snapchat-style feature from Live video to support for DMs. Read more: The hidden cost of Instagram Stories
Now, Instagram Stories has taken another step towards mimicking its ephemeral rival with the addition of custom geostickers, sticker pinning and a timer.
Instagram first brought custom geostickers to New York, Jakarta, and Saõ Paulo last month and is now expanding them to London, Tokyo, Madrid and Chicago.
Perhaps the most impressive update to Instagram is the new hands-free timer. Instagram has found a solution for the problem plaguing many selfie-takers – that your pictures were obviously taken by you. This has often been a hindrance when you want to take a portrait shot of your surroundings, or simply want time to strike the right pose. Now, Instagram's hands-free mode gives you more time to get the shot you want.
Elsewhere, the selfie sticker feature is designed to utilise the front-facing camera. As part of the update, when you take a photo/video and tap the smiley face shown on screen, you'll see a new selfie sticker featuring your profile photo, that lets you capture a mini selfie.
Instagram Stories made its debut in August 2016. It lets users create visual diaries over a 24-hour period. Once the 24th hour ticks over, the Story self-destructs. The similarities with Snapchat don’t end there. When someone uploads a photo, video, Boomerang or Hyperlapse, Instagram Stories can annotate the screen with text, emoji or freestyle drawing.
When the app opens, circular profile pictures from friends appear in a bar along the top. Circles with colourful frames suggest that user has posted a new Story, or an update to an existing Story.
Clicking on the friend’s picture and swiping right and left lets users browse their posts. They can then send them a direct message to comment on a particular post. Instagram has removed the option to Like or publicly comment on these photos and videos, but it is possible to see how many people, and who, have viewed a specific clip.
Each post can be saved onto a user's phones, although entire Story packages are deleted after 24 hours, and saved, annotated posts can be shared on other sites including Twitter and Facebook. These individual posts can additionally be uploaded to a standard Instagram feed.
Kevin Weil, Instagram's head of product, told WIRED the feature had been under development for a few months and the company believed it wouldn't be the last to adopt the 'Stories' style.
"Our belief is that 'stories' is going to become a common format; that is developed on multiple apps and services," he said.
"Facebook was the first to introduce the Feed, now tons of apps have feeds and you don't think anything of it when another app uses a feed – it's the same thing with hashtags. We think the story is going to become a common format."
To create your own story, take a photo or video and add filters by swiping left and right. The relevant text, drawing and emoji options are shown in the top left-hand corner.
Press the “tick” icon to automatically add the post to a Story in chronological order.
These posts can also be removed, and for the first time Instagram lets you select your audience. Previously, it was an “all-or-nothing” approach, but Stories lets you handpick who you share posts with, and importantly who you choose not to.
Instagram Stories is being rolled out from today. It is likely to appear in the UK overnight and into the early hours of Wednesday and users need to update their app to see the new features.
The news comes as Instagram builds on its video options by launching a dedicated video channel called “Videos You Might Like.”
This channel collects videos from across Instagram’s members’ feeds and packages them into what it calls “a seamless viewing experience”. The idea behind this is to allow more posting on Instagram from users.
"We wanted to give you a sense of comfort; so the idea is that you're posting as the day goes along," Weil says.
"You're posting the moments that happen, you don't need to put as much thought into them as you do with a normal Instagram post because you know it is temporary – you have full control over your audience."
As you scroll through the Explore grid over the coming months, Instagram will also be adding “Featured” channels with videos on specific topics such as the 2016 Olympics, Cannes Film Festival, Coachella, Halloween or New Year's Eve.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
