We were not few surprised when Instagram launched, a few days ago, a new feature that we did not think we would see on this platform. With "Stories", Instagram has not only taken a step forward to evolve as a social network, deviating from photography as the main element, but He has also declared war on the one who had been here the longest: Snapchat.
Comparisons, while odious, are inevitable in this case. As they have well admitted from Instagram, they owe the credit for the idea to Snapchat, and it would be useless to deny it. Too many similarities between the two apps, but There are also many differences that, without a doubt, can be decisive when deciding which of them will be the one we use the most.
Years of experience
If Snapchat has anything to do with sharing ephemeral content, it's mileage behind its back. Based on stone crushing, trial and error, They have managed to give a defined mold to their application that is capable of housing a good number of utilities. Instagram, for its part, as far as this field is concerned is "on the chassis", as it says. It is true that on both platforms we can share a maximum of ten seconds of video, that it can only be viewed for 24 hours and that we can add some emojis or drawings, but on Snapchat this is amplified.
Relatively recently, the ghost introduced one of the most idiotic and successful novelties - surprise, surprise -: animated filters. Through these fun additions that are updated daily we can give our recordings a totally informal look and that, regardless of who it weighs, they give life to our timeline. Bitmoji, an app that is synchronized with Snapchat and in which we can create our drawn "self" to implement it in the form of stickers in our publications on said social network (in addition, in private conversations, If the other person also has Bitmoji, custom stickers will appear where both characters are interacting).
At the same time, on this platform we find different media channels where, in a very visual way, they tell us the most relevant news of the moment. Along with them, the live events curated by the Snapchat team itself, with which we will travel to different places around the world to be aware of what is happening on the planet.
Finally, two aspects that are not too noticeable but that we certainly miss on Instagram Stories: be able to adjust the seconds during which we want the photos to be displayed, giving the viewer the option to contemplate them for more or less time and the notification when someone makes a capture of one of our snaps.
What's new and eye-catching
On the other side of the coin we have Instagram Stories. Although it does not contribute anything too new, it does so in a really conducive context. If there is something that plays in favor of this platform, it is, without a doubt, the user base that we already have there. In most cases, our followers there will surpass those of Snapchat and, in the opposite case, it is easier to get new followers on Instagram than on Snapchat, due to the very nature of the platform. In this way, if what we are looking for is repercussion and visualizations, in Instagram Stories we can achieve it in a simpler way than in Snapchat. To this is added that, if we have the public profile, anyone will be able to see our story.
One of the notorious points that we do appreciate about Stories is the possibility of uploading images from the reel made in the last 24 hours and that these are displayed as if they had been captured natively in the application. Snapchat's way of solving this is by adding a box around the image that does not add anything to the viewer, being more of a nuisance than anything else.
The duel of the ephemeral
We are not clear if there will be a winner in the short term, since Both platforms have a large enough user base to stay on top of the wave without having to unseat each other. What is certain is that a war has begun for the fight for the ephemeral, for the "here and now." Choose sides, the cakes are served.
