Snapchat vs Instagram — Who’s the better “Story”?
It is safe to say that Snapchat and Instagram are two of the most popular photo sharing services on the market today. With over half a billion combined active users, these two apps dominate the data of smart phone users on a global scale. While each is unique, both share one common characteristic that many users find to be the most engaging part of the app — the “story” option. Along with snapping your friends or posting photos to your Insta feed, users can create “stories” of multiple photos and videos in a timeline accompanied by stickers and graphics for friends and followers to view.
Originally, Snapchat was the first and only app to offer the “My Story” option. However, as Snapchat popularity rose, Instagram developers decided to get in on the action and create a story option of their own. Since then, the debate on which is better has been ongoing and growing as both companies continue to create new ways to make its “stories” standout.
Snapchat
Originally launched in 2011 under the name Picaboo, Snapchat began an end-of-the-year project in a Stanford University product design class. The photo-sharing app launched for iOS-only smart phones that summer before offering an Android-compaitable version just over a year later. At first, the app only allowed users to “snap” photos to send or share with friends for a maximum of 10 seconds, but in 2012, the app released its new video sharing option. This fully expanded the capabilities of Snapchat and enhanced the overall user experience completely. Now, users could take both photos and videos with Snapchat, which led to the creation of “My Story”.
In 2013, the app launched Snapchat Stories, a type of photo and video combination sharing that allows users to create a timeline of continuous shared content that can be openly viewed for a single 24-hour period. According to Forbes, the introduction of Snapchat Stories increased the number of daily snaps by users to nearly 5,000 a second. On these stories, Snapchat has optional “filters” that include stickers, text and graphics such as geo-filters to share your location. Snapchat videos can now be shared in slow motion, sped up or rewinded using the different video-specific sharing filters.
In 2014, Snapchat rolled out a new advancement to its Snapchat Stories called Discover, a daily feed of collaborative timelines with various outlets that showcase popular news and entertainment events happening around the world. Now, the same way users can create and post personal stories, large brands (ESPN, CNN, Yahoo News, etc.) can do the same. The most recent addition to the Discover page is The New York Times. According to Mashable, Snapchat’s Discover feed sees over 2 billion views on its videos every day, and over 100 million users actively post to their own “My Story” every day.
Launched in 2010, Instagram started strictly as a photo sharing apps for iPhone and iOS devices. In just over a year and a half, the app is released for Android and Instagram’s net worth skyrocketed to $500 million before being bought by Facebook in 2012. In 2013, Instagram released its own video sharing option, just under a year after Snapchat did the same. That same year, Instagram added a new feature called Direct, another direct attempt to compete with Snapchat. Direct allows users to send photos or videos directly to individual people or groups of people straight from the app, similar to the way Snapchat users send content.
Last year, the app launched Instagram Stories and Instagram Live. With these features, users can post photos and videos to their “story” that disappear after 24 hours or start a live video feed for their followers to view that also disappears once it ends. Instagram Stories offer a wide variety of filters similar to those offered by Snapchat, including Geostickers, text, drawing tools and incorporation of emojis and bitmojis to story posts. According to TechCrunch, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom openly admits the Instagram Stories and Live features are copied directly from Snapchat Stories, and was introduced to try and pull users away from Snapchat to Instagram. According to online tech magazine The Verge, Instagram has managed to do just that, with more than 200 million Instagram Stories users per day.
Which is better?
Today, both Snapchat and Instagram are very popular and interactive photo and video sharing apps that have expanded to reach smart phones users from one end of the world to the other. Pioneer app Snapchat offers a lot of open communication, allowing exchanges accompanied by filters and text that are sent directly between users. Instagram offers less of a direct approach with its story feature, unless you use the Direct option. I find myself more commonly referring to Snapchat when I want to talk with specific people opposed to Instagram, which I just really use to kill time.
Snapchat also allows users to stay completely up to date and informed on all things happening around the world just by checking their Snapchat feed. Instagram doesn’t have a similar feature that incorporates a news source, but users can find something interesting from watching its Live videos sponsored from time to time. The Discover page is one of my favorite and best parts about Snapchat today. If I can’t (or don’t want to) pick up a newspaper or watch the news, I don’t feel bad because I know I can turn to Snapchat to get my daily fix. It delivers news in the most engaging and modern way, setting it apart from Instagram dramatically.
Both apps offer similar features, but are different in what they offer to the user. Those who want to talk directly with a person or group should go to Snapchat to get their message sent. Users who just want to post what they’re up to or where they are, not specifically to a single person, should opt for Instagram to post directly to their story. Want to interact with friends while catching up on the news or favorite celebrities? You can find that on Snapchat. Want live action footage instead? You can only find that on Instagram. In the future, I’m sure more features and advancements will be made to both, as Snapchat and Instagram continue to fight for a mere 10 seconds of your attention.
