According to Facebook, there are more than 200 million people actively using its Stories feature on Instagram, which is more than the number of users on Snapchat (161 million). This is quite interesting, as the Snapchat cloned stories feature is so very received by the Instagram community and has find its use within a short span of release.
Also, Instagram users are being gifted with yet another Stories feature to make sharing more fun and enjoying, and this applies to Direct messages as well.
New Instagram Direct
With the new Instagram Direct, conversation turn into a visual conversation with photos and videos. Texts and reshares will now appear in the same thread with disappearing photos and videos, allowing you to go back and forth seamlessly.
How to send disappearing photos and videos to friends/followers
- Open Instagram app
- From the homescreen, swipe left into Direct
- Open an existing conversation and tap the new blue camera icon at the bottom.
- Capture the disappearing photo or video and tap the arrow icon to send it to friend.
- Keep track of who has seen your message through notifications within the thread.
You can also take a fresh disappearing photo or video and send it groups of friends, here is how:
- Swipe left into Direct
- Tap the blue camera icon at the bottom
- Capture the disappearing photo or video and tap the arrow icon
- Select the friends from the list or search to add them to group conversation.
- Once selected, hit Done!
These disappearing messages will be highlighted blue in the inbox for the other receiving party. If you receive one, tap to view them and you can replay them once. One thing to note is that the sender will be notified if you replay or screenshot the message.
Selfie Sticker and Pinning
We are already familiar with the use of Stickers, but Instagram is taking it a bit further and introducing Selfie Sticker. Basically, these are just mini-selfies and can be put anywhere on your normal selfies before or after capturing. Here is how it works.
- Take a photo or video and tap the smiley face. (Tip: Swipe right to see your recently used stickers).
- You’ll see a new sticker with a camera icon that lets you capture a mini-selfie.
- Apply different frame styles: fade or circle.
- Once satisfied, put your selfie sticker anywhere on the selfie, adjust the size etc.
Selfie sticker, pinning also works for the videos, which means more fun with Boomerang and Hands-free video. Just tap and hold the sticker, move it over any object and confirm by tapping “Pin“. (Tip:Â When you record a video using Hands-Free mode, tap and hold the button to see a timer that counts down to when the video begins.)
Pinning works with any sticker and text, and you can even pin multiple things in the same video.
Geostickers in Four New Cities
If you live in or are traveling to Chicago, London, Madrid or Tokyo, you’ll also start seeing geostickers for your city over the coming days.
These updates are available as part of Instagram version 10.16 for iOS in the App Store and version 10.16.1 for Android in Google Play. The past track record for Instagram on Windows 10 has been pretty good and you can expect an update to hit the Windows Store, soon!
