Instagram Vs Snapchat

If you use Instagram, then yesterday you will have noticed a big difference at the top of your feed. Facebook-owned social media platform, Instagram, introduced a new feature called Instagram Stories. There have been mixed reviews on the feature, with the main topic of discussion falling on the similarities it has with Snapchat.

Snapchat has had their ‘stories’ feature since 2013, where you can live share videos and photos for your whole Snapchat friends list to view. Instagram has now added the ‘stories’ feature to their own platform and the comments have been predominantly negative. With such comments as “why yall wanna be snapchat” and “Instagram is getting worse and worse day by day and still disrespecting their users…”. Snapchat employees have also taken to social media to express their views on the release of ‘Instagram Stories’, with one of their product designers, Jack Brody, comparing it to Melania Trumps plagiarized speech, originally given by Michelle Obama (with Instagram being Trump, and Snapchat being Obama). Read his tweets here.

This isn’t the first time that Snapchat’s innovative ideas have been copied. Back in 2012, Facebook introduced extended app ‘Poke’, which mirrored a noticeable amount of features that already existed in Snapchat (and has since been removed). There seems to be a trend with Facebook liking Snapchats features…

So, the general view is that Instagram has almost perfectly copied the original Snapchat feature, but what are the differences? Notably, you don’t have to be following someone to view their story (their profile just has to be public) and the ‘stories’ are organised for you, with who Instagram thinks you interact with the most being first in line. Read a whole list of differences here.

Although there has been some positive feedback, the overwhelming criticism is that Instagram has simply copied Snapchat. The question many are asking is, will Snapchat react?

Follow us on Instagram (@tannwestlake) to see whether we use this new feature.