Instagram Launched New Features That Imitate Elements Of Snapchat And Twitter

The social app has introduced live video and disappearing pictures and videos to its platform.

November 21, 2016

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Instagram has announced two new updates to its app - live video through Instagram Stories and disappearing pictures and video clips in Instagram Direct - which incorporate key elements of Snapchat and Twitter into the social network.

“We want Instagram to be a place where you can share all of your moments, to create a pressure-free space to do so,” Kevin Weil, head of product at Instagram, told The New York Times. The live video feature allows users to notify their followers when they go live and pin comments, or shut off comments completely, while recording. The direct message aspect of the app has been updated to include an option to privately send photos and videos that disappear from the recipients's inbox after they've been seen.

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Instagram, which was acquired by Facebook in 2012, has been consistently releasing new features to compete with Snapchat in the past year such as Instagram Stories. The live video and disappearing picture and video features were rolled out globally today.

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Instagram Launched New Features That Imitate Elements Of Snapchat And Twitter