Instagram updated the app recently with a new feature called “Instagram Stories.” This feature adds the functionality to share stories with friends which automatically gets cleared out in 24 hours and won’t appear on your profile or feed. You can save them to your phone if you want to share them on other social networks.
You will see a bar above your feeds to show the stories of people you follow. The bar is scrollable showing you the avatars of people shared their stories. Twist of this feature is that you can draw on your stories like you do in Snapchat, but Instagram Stories is better.
To use Instagram stories, you first need to update your Instagram app. Open Play Store > My Apps > tap Update and wait for some time to finish the installation.
Launch the updated Instagram app; you will see some new changes in the interface. You will notice a plus (+) button on the top and below that a bar with the avatars of people you follow. You can click on those avatars to check out the stories they shared.
To create your stories, swipe right from the home page or tap on the plus (+) icon on the top left the corner. You will see the camera getting launched, and now you can click a picture by tapping the shutter key. If you want to add some previously clicked pictures, just swipe down on the camera screen and you will see a bar on top with all your clicked pictures. After clicking or choosing the right image, you will proceed to the next screen, click the drawing icon on top right corner.
And this is where you can add the magic to your picture; you can draw, create a doodle, add emojis or add text to your images. Instagram offers you three types of pen tips to draw; pen tip, highlighter, and glow. The pen tip is the ordinary pen to draw something on pictures. Highlighter pen tip can be used to highlight something in the picture and it’s transparent. Glow pen tip creates a neon-like glow around the stroke.
On the lower left corner, there is a button which pops up a slider to change the thickness of the pen. You will also notice a small color bar at the bottom choose between colors, swiping on them will reveal more colors to use. When done doodling, you can tap done, and you will come back to the previous screen.
To add text to your images, you can tap the text icon on the top and start typing. You can rotate, move or resize the text with your finger gestures. To post the story you created, a simple tap on the download icon on the bottom right corner of the screen and it will get save to your photo library.
To delete your story, all you have to do is to open your story from the story bar on top. While the story is playing, swipe up on the story you want to delete. Swiping up will reveal all the details of that story with options to save the story or delete it.
You can also filter the list of people who can see or reply to your story. Open the story you want to filter, swipe up and click the setting icon on the top left corner. In the settings menu, tap on Hide Story From and select the people from the list from whom you want to hide the story and tap Done.
So, that’s all from Instagram Stories. This update has arrived on Android and iOS, and as always Windows phone users don’t get the good stuff. Tell us, how you like the new Instagram Stories feature in the comment section.
