Instagram Throws Down Gauntlet, Introduces Instagram Stories

Instagram stepped things up quite a bit this week with the introduction of “Instagram Stories”, which allows users to catalogue and share a number of pictures or videos taken throughout the day to help avoid “overposting.”
Instagram Stories work similar to Snapchat Stories in that they will disappear after 24 hours and allow users to draw on and add fun images to your content.

Already, some outlets are claiming Instagram Stories are superior to Snapchat Stories, but it remains to be seen if the new tool will add a nail in Snapchat’s coffin – as it clearly is meant to do.

Snapchat Goes for the Gold

Speaking of Snapchat, the social network is getting into the spirit of the Olympics with special filters, lenses and stickers. The Rio Summer Olympics (which kick off today) are also getting a special NBC Olympics channel on its Discover section to help users keep up on all of the excitement no matter where they are.

Snapchat is even curating Live Stories from some countries (U.S. included) that will highlight some great moments from the games.

Another interesting (and very cool, in my opinion) function will include country-specific geofilters that will automatically display medal counts by country. Of course, if you aren’t in Rio you’ll only be able to look on from afar, but at least Snapchat is making it interesting for those in attendance for the games!