Instagram took a sheet of Snapchat’s book and added a disappearing story feature. Now users can not only post normal pictures on Instagram, but also share what is happening. Each picture posted in a story only stays live for 24 hours. Then it’s gone.
Instagram’s Story is a great way to share events without cluttering your carefully curated feed with dozens of throwaway images. Your friends and followers might be interested in seeing what’s going on in your life or taking a behind-the-scenes look at your work, but they probably want to sign up instead of just letting it appear on their feed. It’s part of Instagram’s move to become a broader social network, rather than just a place for beautiful pictures.
Let’s see how to use it.
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How to view your friends’ stories
At the top of your Instagram feed are small circles with the people you follow. Instagram uses an algorithm to arrange them so that the people you interact with the most are shown first.
To view someone’s story, tap their icon. This will bring out their story. It will look something like this.
The bar at the top of the screen counts down how long is left of this element. Tap Send Message to send a direct reply to them. In the lower right, tap the three dots to get the option to report the picture to Instagram if it’s objectionable.
Swipe right to return to the previous account’s story. Swipe left to go to the next account’s story.
Tap the left side of the screen to go back to the previous picture in the story of the same account. Tap on the right side of the screen to go to the next picture in the account’s story.
Tap the small X or swipe up to exit Stories.
When you’ve finished watching one person’s story, Instagram automatically redirects you to the next person.
How to post your own story on Instagram
To post a picture to your own story, tap the camera icon in the top left of the screen or swipe right.
This will take you to Instagram’s camera.
There are four different modes: Normal, Boomerang, Hands Free and Live.
Note: Additional modes have been added since this post was originally published.
To take a photo in normal mode, just tap the circle button. To record a short video, press and hold the circle key.
Boomerang is a strange mode that takes a series of photos and then merges them into a short video. The catch is that instead of looping, it plays through normally and then plays back in reverse. You can see an example in the GIF below.
In hands-free mode, tap the circle to start recording the video and tap it again to stop. Unlike in normal mode, you don’t have to hold down the button.
Live mode allows you to broadcast a live video to your followers. Once you finish the transfer, the video is gone.
Tap the gear icon in the top left to go to the settings screen. Here you can prevent people from seeing your story and control who can reply to messages.
The three icons below are the Flash, Night Mode, and Switch Camera buttons. The flash button switches the flash between on, off and automatically. The night mode button automatically brightens the image captured by the camera. The Switch Camera button toggles between your rear-facing and front-facing cameras.
If you don’t want to take a picture with Instagram’s camera and instead want to add one from your phone, swipe up and you’ll be able to choose any of the pictures from your phone.
After you have taken or selected a picture, you will see this screen.
To save it on your phone, tap the “Save” button.
In the upper right, tap the buttons to add stickers, text, and drawings to your picture.
To post the picture on your story, tap the Your Story button.
You can also tap the arrow, choose your story, and tap Send.
This is how you can see who viewed your Instagram story
Tap your story to see who viewed your Instagram story.
Next, swipe up to see a list of everyone who’s viewed your story.
Instagram’s story feature is a pretty direct copy of Snapchat. Still, because a lot of people are already following a few hundred people on Instagram, it really takes off. There’s no need to add the same friends to Snapchat if you already have them on Instagram.
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