People can now upload any photo or video from their phones’ camera rolls to their Instagram Stories, no matter whether it was taken an hour ago or a week ago.
When Instagram launched its version of Snapchat’s ephemeral Stories format in August 2016, people could post any photo or video they had taken and saved to their phones’ camera rolls within the past 24 hours. Now the Facebook-owned photo-and-video app has removed that recency requirement (Stories themselves still disappear after 24 hours). Opening up Stories to full photo and video libraries should make it easier for people to fill up their Stories but could also result in Stories feeling less in-the-moment.
For brands, Instagram’s move allows for more pre-produced Story posts without any obvious drawbacks like on Snapchat.
In July 2016, Snapchat similarly allowed people to upload photos and videos from their camera rolls to Stories, regardless of when they were taken. But Snapchat adds a white border to those posts and a label that discloses that they were posted from a camera roll and when they were taken.
On Instagram, these older posts can be made to look like normal posts without viewers being any the wiser. When an older photo or video is uploaded to a Story on Instagram, the app automatically adds a sticker showing the date on which the photo or video was originally taken. And people can change the color, size and position of this date like any other sticker. But they can also remove it from the post.
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