A few years ago, Facebook and Instagram owner, Mark Zuckerberg tried to buy Snapchat for $3 billion, but Evan Spiegel, founder of the photo and video-sharing app, rejected the offer. Today, almost four years later, Instagram is doing everything in their power to look exactly like – if not better than Snapchat. Here are all the steps they’ve taken in their bid to outdo the rival platform.
First they introduced stories
In August 2016 when news that Instagram now had a ‘stories’ feature broke, the whole world was shook. Not only did they steal the idea, they took the name as well. What did this mean for Snapchat? Would this be the end?
Thankfully, the buzz didn’t take away from Snapchat’s glory, as user experience revealed that the original ‘stories’ was more fun to use than the ‘copycat’ version.
Then they updated to enable users share private disappearing messages
As if that wasn’t enough, Instagram updated the feature to make it possible for users to share private disappearing messages, just like Snapchat. So whenever a user felt the need to do a short video, specifically for a particular audience, it was easy-peasy.
Users get alert when screenshots are taken
Instagram now notifies if someone takes a screenshot. Be careful @silverbtf pic.twitter.com/n4olOvKg0L
— Travis (@travlim) November 24, 2016
In December, borrowing yet another feature from the rival platform, Instagram started alerting users when screenshots of their private disappearing messages were taken. So whenever someone tries to steal your photo, you would be alerted, making it possible for you to keep track of the number of times your photo has been taken by a particular person.
Introduction of stickers
Starting today, you can add stickers to your stories! ? https://t.co/JQgae1SSXk pic.twitter.com/hueVO0SW1N
— Instagram (@instagram) December 20, 2016
Back in December, Instagram released an update that would enable users to add stickers to their videos and photos, just like Snapchat. The stickers included location stickers, weather stickers the time in photos and videos that appear in stories, etc. The move was their attempt at copying he famous geo filters.
Geo-location filters
The latest copycat move is the introduction of geo-location filters, at last. The feature is currently only available in two cities — Jakarta and New York City — and includes visual representations that resemble the cities.
It’s safe to say Instagram is slowly becoming a clone of Snapchat, plus more. All that’s left now is to get Snap’s famous lenses feature and tada, the bigger network might just completely kick their less-popular competition out completely.
Will they really win this one or will Snapchat always remain a step ahead of them? We wait and see.