Inside Instagram’s Snapchat Play and What to Make of It
If you logged onto Instagram last week, you were likely greeted by a row of circular pictures of your friends’ account avatars. Upon clicking on these circles, a feeling of déjà vu likely swept over you if you’ve ever been on Snapchat as Instagram was not featuring “Stories,” a new feature where users could string together content in fun posts that coincidentally disappear after 24 hours. Now why does this sound so familiar…?
Oh yeah, Snapchat! After all, from the name itself—Snapchat’s similar feature is called, um, Stories where you piece together pieces of pictures and video—to the 24-hour period to the overall feel of the Stories feature, it is clear that this is Facebook’s attempt to loosen Snapchat’s chokehold on ephemeral content.
But wait, we were just talking about Instagram, what does that have to do with Facebook? Well, for those of you with poor short-term memory, Facebook acquired Instagram several years ago while Snapchat had spent much of the past year attempting to chip away at Facebook’s dominance and had been making considerable gains, especially amongst users under the age of 24. Part of what made Snapchat’s Story feature so fun is its ephemeral nature empowered users to constantly experiment with the platform since even their most embarrassing content would only be up for no more than 24 hours.
Thus, when Instagram rolled out its carbon copy of a Stories feature, they didn’t deny the similarities, with their Stories button also being a small circle and only really differing in terms of placement, with Instagram Stories appearing at the top of a screen. According to a blog post, the company stated, “With Instagram Stories, you 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.”
Of course, as this sounds just like Snapchat, Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom even admitted as much, crediting Snapchat with the innovation when he stated, “When you are an innovator, that’s awesome. Just like Instagram deserves all the credit for bringing filters to the forefront. This isn’t about who invented something. This is about a format, and how you take it to a network and put your own spin on it.” He went on to try and separate the two features by pointing to Instagram’s older and wider audience, saying, “We’re bringing some new creative outlets with ‘neon drawing.’ You have different ways of navigating back and forth with this. You have a completely different audience. If you’re a business, if you’re a celebrity, if you’re an interest-based account, you can have a giant audience. It’s going to feel very different. I don’t believe these two things are substitutes, and that’s okay.”
In the coming months, it will be telling how both Snapchat adapts to this new feature and what Instagram and Facebook will do to gain a stake in ephemeral content.
