In an effort to retain users who may have drifted toward Snapchat, Instagram copied one of its rival's defining features: short-lived multimedia. But will the new 'Instagram Stories' be a strategic success or just another flop from Instagram's parent, Facebook?
If Snapchat is still just a little too confusing for you, Instagram might have a solution. The Facebook-owned company today revealed a new feature that resembles one of Snapchat's most popular attributes: "disappearing" photos and video.
"Instagram Stories" could help you find a happy medium between over-sharing and under-sharing. As the feature rolls out globally via Android and iOS during the coming weeks, Instagram's 500 million monthly active users will gain access to a daily feed of photos and video that resets after 24 hours. The photos and video added to the Instagram Stories feed will "disappear" after 24 hours and won't appear in the main Instagram feed or in the grids on users' profiles, according to the company.
Instagram Stories will appear in a bar along the top of the app, that highlights people with recent Stories. When you add multiple photos or videos to those Stories within 24 hours, Instagram will automatically fuse them together as a slideshow.
Instagram Instagram Stories
Facebook has tried to copy Snapchat many times, with failed apps such as Poke and Slingshot. And it has regularly updated Instagram with new features and functionality. However, Instagram Stories marks the most radical change to the app in nearly three years.
"Instagram is aiming here not to displace Snapchat necessarily but to shift some usage from Snapchat to Instagram among people who use both apps," says Jan Dawson, chief analyst and founder of tech research firm Jackdaw. "It's about not giving people excuses to switch to a competing app for features that have been exclusive to those in the past."
Casual sharing has never been Instagram's forte, but Snapchat has also evolved significantly from its early days as a purely "ephemeral" messaging app, according to Dawson. While permanent sharing and temporary sharing have been largely kept to dedicated and separate apps, such as Instagram and Snapchat, there's nothing that precludes these companies and others from adding features popularized by competitors.
The copying and borrowing between Instagram and Snapchat has been particularly active this summer. Snapchat made a move on Instagram's turf less than a month ago, when it released "Memories" and gave users a tool to preserve and curate the content they share for future viewing. Today, just 27 days later, Instagram followed up with a snap of its own. "Users benefit from this copying, because it helps them avoid having to use a million different apps for different use cases," Dawson says. "The key is to keep developing new, unique features while also borrowing the best of what's worked in other apps, and to maintain an appropriate balance between these two."
Instagram has traditionally gravitated to a glossy aesthetic with high-quality photography and video. The company's Cofounder and CEO Kevin Systrom has repeatedly called out this aesthetic as a defining characteristic that differentiates it from other photo, video and messaging apps. "If you want to take a simple photo that you don't really want to remember and post it to have your friends not see it after, there are great networks for that," Systrom told Systrom told The Hollywood Reporter just last month.
Instagram Stories "will be a big deal for certain classes of users, and especially those in the sort of target age groups that tend to engage in the most ephemeral sharing, and who are the biggest users of Snapchat," Dawson says. However, it could also clutter the interface, and the company will have to tread carefully so it doesn't detract from the overall experience, he says.
In our fifth and final episode, we delve into the relationship between retailer and supplier and how it drives and influences launch marketing strategies and success. To do that, we’re joined by Campbell Davies, group general manager of Associated Retailers Limited, and Kristin Viccars, marketing director A/NZ, Apex Tool Group. Also featured are Five by Five Global managing director, Matt Lawton, and CMO’s Nadia Cameron.
With continued advances in marketing technology, data privacy continues to play catchup in terms of regulation, safety and use. The laws that do exist are open to interpretation and potential misuse and that has led to consumer mistrust and increasing calls for a stronger regulatory framework to protect personal information.
Environmental, Social and (Corporate) Governance is a hot topic for brands right now. But before you start thinking about doing good, Craig Flanders says you best sort out the basics.
Through the ages, from the fields to the factories to the office towers and now to our kitchen tables, collaboration has played a pivotal role in how we live and work. Together. We find partners, live as families, socialise in groups and work as teams. Ultimately, we rely on these collaborative structures to survive and thrive.
The best part: optimizing your site for SEO enables you to generate high traffic, and hence free B2B lead generation. This is done throug...
Sergiu Alexei
The top 6 content challenges facing B2B firms
Nowadays, when everything is being done online, it is good to know that someone is trying to make an improvement. As a company, you are o...
Marcus
10 lessons Telstra has learnt through its T22 transformation
Check out tiny twig for comfy and soft organic baby clothes.
Morgan mendoza
Binge and The Iconic launch Inactivewear clothing line
NetSuite started out as a cloud-based provider of Enterprise Resource Planning software or as NetSuite solution provider, which companies...
talalyousaf
NetSuite to acquire Bronto's digital marketing platform for US$200m
Thanks for sharing this post, its really good information I get through this blog.CDPO Online Exam Training
Infosectrain01
3 ways Booking.com is improving its B2B marketing game