Instagram Launches Snapchat-Like Stories

Instagram rolled out a new feature Tuesday that it calls Stories, which lets users upload photos and videos that will disappear automatically after 24 hours. Sounds familiar? A lot like Snapchat? That’s because it is.

In an official blog, Instagram said that using Stories, users “don’t have to worry about overposting. Instead, you can share as much as you want throughout the day — with as much creativity as you want. You can bring your story to life in new ways with text and drawing tools. The photos and videos will disappear after 24 hours and won’t appear on your profile grid or in feed.”

Stories from people you follow will appear in a bar on the top of your feed. Unlike regular posts, photos or videos uploaded to Stories won’t have the option to like or comment. If you want to comment on a story you have seen, you can send a private message to the poster.

Privacy settings for Stories are the same as those for your account, but you can also choose to hide the 24-hour feed from anyone, even from those who follow you. You can also easily see a list of everyone who has viewed photos and videos in your Stories feed.

The feature will be rolled out to globally to both Android and iOS users over the next few weeks, according to the announcement.

The move by Facebook-owned Instagram seems to be an attempt to take on Snapchat, which launched an almost exactly same service — also called Stories — in 2014, which it has since expanded to include other features.

In an interview to TechCrunch, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom, responding to a question about Snapchat pioneering the format, said: “Totally. They deserve all the credit.”