In its effort to become more like Snapchat, Instagram has launched a new feature this week that lets users send disappearing photos and videos to followers. To say these new features are similar to those used by Snapchat, would be a gross understatement- as part of the update, users will be able to send disappearing content to followers and friends through direct messaging (it goes down in the dm?).
Instagram users will only be able to send temporary photos and videos to their followers however, so spamming will not be an issue. The new functionality will begin rolling out worldwide Monday so look out for an update to reach devices over the weekend.
This announcement comes just two months after Instagram launched a new feature called Stories, which merges together multiple posts captured in the same day for one smooth recap. If you are asking yourself if that same feature was on Snapchat way before that, you would be quite correct. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness right?
It was also revealed Monday that livestreaming within the application will also soon become available. Tapping a new “Start Live Video” button in the camera viewer allows users to stream live footage for up to an hour. There will be an option to turn off comments, and the app can push notifications to users that alert them when an account they’re following is going live. This feature will operate similarly to Facebook live, however the content will not be saved after the stream has been completed.
