Instagram launches Snapchat-like feature, Instagram Stories

The Facebook-owned free mobile photo and video sharing app Instagram (available on iOS, Android, and Windows) announced the roll-out of a new feature called Instagram Stories on its official blog (blog.instagram.com) on August 1, 2016.

"It's a new feature that lets you share all the moments of your day, not just the ones you want to keep on your profile. As you share multiple photos and videos, they appear together in a slideshow format: your story," says the brand about Instagram Stories, in its blog. Interestingly, the feature is being inevitably compared with Snapchat, an image messaging and multimedia mobile application which already has the same feature.

With Instagram Stories, users can share whatever they would like to share throughout the day in the most creative manner, using various drawing tools and innovative ways of writing the same text. The photos and videos uploaded on Instagram through this new feature will disappear after 24 hours though, and won't appear in either one's profile grid, or in feed.

Instagrammers can view the stories at the top of their feed, ranging from their favourite popular accounts to Instagram stories of their best friends. In case, there's something new to be seen, the person/account's profile picture begins to have a colourful ring around it. The only difference is that unlike the regular posts on Instagram feeds, there are no likes or public comments for these stories. Privacy settings can be changed for these stories just like regular posts on Instagram.