Instagram Dominates Snapchat With Hundreds Of Millions More Users

Snapchat and Instagram have been in heated competition for a little over a year, since Instagram added a competitive “stories” feature to the app that many say copied Snapchat. Both of the apps offer a platform for sending disappearing photos, videos and messages to friends on the app, while instagram also then offers its more traditional profile page of permanent photos.

On Monday, Instagram announced that it had added 100 million monthly users to the app since April, putting its total users at 800 million, CNBC reported. Back in April the company announced that it had 700 million users, and that the most recent 100 million had joined faster than any group before.

Of those 800 million users, 500 of them are daily average users, according to CNBC. In August, Snap Inc, the parent company of Snapchat was reporting that the app had 173 million daily average users, up from 166 million during the first quarter of 2017. That’s a huge gap in the number of users, something Snapchat has been trying to close a bit with frequent updates. But Instagram has also been adding updates and new features to keep up with Snap.

Just in the last year or so major updates have been introduced on both apps. A huge addition was the introduction of augmented reality features. Both apps have moved on to AR although they’re addressing them a bit differently. Instagram added AR face filters to the app earlier this year that are almost exactly like those found on Snapchat. The filters include nerdy glasses, a sleep-mask filter, one with a crown and sometimes even animal ears just like the beloved Snapchat dog face.

While Instagram has been working to catch up with Snapchat by adding these face filters, that can be used in direct snaps, or those added to stories or used in live video, as well as adding disappearing messages, comment threading and archive features, Snap has been stepping up its game as well.

Snapchat most recently added 3-D Bitmoji activities to the app. Users can now add their Bitmoji in AR to any Snap, video or photo, doing different activities like waiting for the bus or standing at the water cooler. On the eve of its 6th birthday the app also added sky filters. When the app identifies sky in the photo or video the sky filters appear. The users can add a sunset, a starry night or storm clouds to their Snaps. The feature is rolling out to users starting Monday.

The two apps offer diverse enough effects and features that some users still have both apps, but as more changes and updates are introduced the two might find themselves competing more directly.