I was waiting for the train with my brother 3 days ago and as I started going through my Instagram feeds. I then saw this purple flashing icon on the top left of my Samsung tablet. Like a kid seeing a new toy at their favourite shop, I couldn’t resist tapping on it.

From my first tap, Instagram tries to give us an overview of what Stories is. At the end of it, I understood it gives me the ability to capture a video and then draw some doodles of words on the video. After that, I started my first Instagram Stories with my brother next to me. The video was captured just like any other videos on Instagram. I wanted to draw some words on it but I couldn’t find the option to do that. Maybe it’s just me.

After my first experience with it, I don’t know how much I would use it and if it will catch on. And then I bumped into this article yesterday. The article basically described it as a direct competition to Snapchat.

Who would have thought?

I have never used Snapchat before. Now that I have tried it from Instagram Stories. There’s even less reason for me to download Snapchat now.

I then found some tips for using Stories today. The main gist of them:

  • Capture a bunch of random photos or videos and then they disappears in 24 hour
  • You can connect the videos and photos together to tell a Story
  • You can highlight your story by adding caption on photos or videos
  • If you ever want to make it a permanent post on your Instagram, you can share as post to add it to your profile grid.

I don’t know about you. I will give it another go today. I have to get ready now for my nephew’s 1st birthday party. I can’t wait to give him the gift I bought at Myers yesterday. It’s a big bunny.

I’ll let you know how I went. Maybe it will catch up on me.

Feel free to let me know what you think about Instagram Stories. Is this something that you will use all the time? If not, when would you use it?

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