Have you heard the latest news? Instagram Stories has surpassed the gargantuan milestone of 200 million (!) daily active users, making it bigger than Snapchat’s stats of 161 million users. Yes, Instagram’s Snapchat clone is now MORE popular than Snapchat itself — and it’s only eight months old!
With the mobile photo-sharing service enjoying the sweet taste of success, it seems to be celebrating by rolling out spanking new features left, right and centre. All this and more in this week’s edition of Social Snippets….
The Private Collection
No, not the new exhibition at the Tate, but Instagram’s latest, greatest feature.
So, what is it exactly? Well, users can now save their posted photos and videos in a swanky private collection, giving people a way to bookmark items they want to remember for the future, such as drool-worthy destinations to travel or fancy-pants cake decorating ideas for your next party.
(Or, you know, cute dogs – ain’t no harm in 100+ photos of Corgi puppies).
This change to Instagram is an addition to a feature introduced last December, that allows users to save posts from the people they follow. According to statistics, 46% of people have saved at least one post since the feature’s inception; and, now, with the ability to create multiple collections of saved Instagram posts, the compartmentalisation is limitless.
Though collections remain private for now, that’s not to say your perfectly curated boards couldn’t be ogled by the public in the near future…
Move Aside, Geotags
We weren’t joking when we said Instagram was rolling out tools left, right and centre.
As well as Collections, the app giant made some very aesthetic changes to its Stories feature. Among the updates are custom ‘geostickers’ in four more cities – London, Tokyo, Madrid and Chicago, AND a hands-free timer.
What makes these geostickers so special? All of them have been designed by local community members, meaning not only are they seriously cute but they help to promote each city’s local arts scene. It’s a win-win!
Facebook with a Twist
What’s the future of socialising, according to Facebook? Two words: virtual reality.
At its F8 Developer Conference in San Jose this week, the social network service announced several new products, all with a driving focus on virtual and augmented reality.
Facebook Spaces, its new VR app, lets users chat with friends in a 3D virtual environment, offering the first real glimpse of how Facebook plans to make virtual reality a HUGE social tool.
You get your own cartoon avatar to represent you in the virtual world, the ability to talk to multiple people in a virtual space at the same time, and, best of all, you can overlay 360° images or videos from your feed onto the virtual space, plunging you and your avatar friends into a personalised environment.
Like this tropical paradise:
If this is the future of social media, then bring it on!