Instagram has been dominating the social media game especially after implementing “Instagram Stories” this past summer which generally mimics Snapchat’s platform. Today, Berna (@HeyBerna) from the Insta communications team went “live” for an intimate digital crowd of 50 people, including myself, to demonstrate the newest feature and drop info on some of the updates happening in Instagram today as well as the coming weeks.
LIVE: As of today, a select group of people (mainly content creators and influencers) can go live directly from their story on an interface that is essentially Periscope. It will appear in your story feed with the “LIVE” indicator across the broadcaster’s photo to signify an active live broadcast. Users can broadcast up to an hour but can immediately hop back on live to start another hour long live session, although these live cast can not be replayed or saved. Berna assured today’s viewers that this feature will be available to all users after the completion of a successful test run in select markets.
DISAPPEARING PHOTO AND VIDEO MESSAGES: Another eerily similar Snap influence feature rolls out today as Insta now offers the option to send photos and videos in direct messages that vanish after a few seconds.
EXPECTED UPDATES: Instagram has promised that we will see more creative (Snapchat-like) features in the coming months, as early as a couple weeks, such as filters, location tags and more.
Stay tuned for news on updates and always, follow me and say hi! – @AshleyMarietta