Since launching Stories last year, Instagram has rolled out over 20 new features —from introducing Boomerangs right in your story to the ability to @mention and link to other accounts.
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Launched to give the Instagram community a way to share their everyday moments — not just the highlights — Stories has taken off with 250m people using it every day.
Here are 10 things you might not know you can do in Instagram Stories:
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- Reply to Stories with photo and video: Tap the new camera button while watching a story to reply with a photo or a video. You can use creative tools like face filters, stickers and rewind in your replies.
- Clone yourself with selfie stickers: Use the upper right-hand corner of the screen to bring up your stickers menu. Tap the new selfie icon, take a photo and tap the button below to capture a mini selfie to post your reactions and face-swap with friends.
- Put a pin in it: To pin your selfie sticker or any other sticker or piece of text to a spot on the screen, select the sticker and hold your finger down to move it to a final location. Tap pin and voila – there it stays, even over moving video!
- Rewind your video: Rewind is a new camera format that will play your video in reverse (imagine water pouring back into a glass).
- Hashtag sticker: Add a hashtag in a story with simple text or the new hashtag sticker. Tap the hashtag to explore related content.
- Get a closer look: Hold down on the video circle and swipe up to zoom in on a photo or video. You can even do it with one finger!
- Experiment with erasing: With the new eraser brush, you can erase other things you’ve drawn and play around with removing colour in Stories.
- Colour block your screen: If you choose a colour from the palette on the bottom of your stories screen and hold your finger down on the screen, the entire screen will turn that colour, giving you a backdrop that you can write or draw on, add stickers to, or even selectively erase to show the photo beneath.
- Colour code your text: If you want your text to appear in different colours versus only one, select a letter or word and then click on the new colour you want it to turn. Change up the colour combo any way you choose.
- Transform an Instagram Live into a Boomerang: Upload a Live video from your iPhone to the camera and turn it into a Boomerang by long-pressing.
How are you using Instagram Stories? Join the conversation on our Facebook page. You can also follow us on Instagram to see how we’re using Stories, showing you behind the scenes of what we get up to.
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