It’s a dilemma that every serial Instagrammer will recognise all too well. You’ve spent months, no, years, curating a grid that perfectly matches your aesthetic, but sometimes you want to share the smaller moments from your day with your followers – without spamming their feeds and disturbing your painstakingly curated Instagram presence.
The answer? Today Instagram launches its new Stories feature, allowing you to share as many photos and videos as you like in a slideshow ‘story’ format throughout the day – with the chance to add text, emojis and colourful drawings to your moments.
Your story will last just 24 hours and, crucially, won’t clog up your profile grid or your feed. Instead, stories from accounts you follow will pop up in a bar at the top of the app – if there’s a new story to investigate, a coloured ring will appear around their profile photo, which you can view by simply tapping the image.
Confused? Here's how to create your story and add drawings...
And here's how you can view your friends' stories...
Unlike your average Instagram post, rather than responding with visible comments or likes, you can interact with your friends’ pictures and videos by sending private messages via the direct inbox. There’s also the rather sneaky option to hide your story from a follower you don’t want seeing it (hiya, grandparents…) – and to check out exactly who has seen each stage of your story. Let the investigations commence…
While Stories are primarily intended to add temporary moments to your Instagram, there’s also the option to save your newly created content to your phone, or to upload them directly to your account as a conventional post. You know, in case you manage to truly excel yourself with filters…
Want in? Instagram will be rolling out this new feature over the next few weeks for iOS and Android.