Instagram is coming out with a new feature that lets you send disappearing photos and videos to friends and followers. This new feature is akin to Snapchat. Facebook owned Instagram has been launching several features to make it more competitive to other apps. It has previously launched Stories, which strings together several posts taken on the same day. A similar feature was also launched first by its market rival, Snapchat.
The Stories feature is similar to Snapchat in a way that you string together temporary photos and videos to create a gallery to tell a story. It can be swiped by followers in 24 hours by tapping your profile that is encased with a colorful circle, to tell them that you have a story to show.
If you change your mind and decide to remove the photos from the gallery, you can do it easily. You only tap the three dots at the bottom right portion of the photo or video that you want to delete – and pronto, it’s gone!
After the launching of Stories, Instagram came out with this recent feature that enables users to send disappearing photos and videos to friends and groups through direct messaging. The contents disappear when viewed by the recipient. The app also lets the sender know if a screenshot has been taken or if the video is replayed.
This feature will roll out in the market soon and will only be available to Instagram followers. An added feature that’s coming soon is live streaming within the Instagram app. This is done by tapping the button on live video so users can stream live footages of events for an hour. The app alerts followers when the account that they are following is going on live.
This live video feature is similar to that on Facebook, except that you can’t save the live footage after the broadcast.
If you remember the earlier version of the Instagram app, it didn’t include all the crazy add-ons that you’re used to today. Unless Instagram chooses a simpler version, expect more features to be added soon.