Social media is in a fascinating space today. Other than being a medium of communication and entertainment, their internal conflicts are equally impressive to see. Reasons for these conflicts have are often fights to please their target audiences and in the process taking a so-called unethical route that the other party opposes. The phenomenon, however, is not a new one. In fact, it is pretty much natural when all of them are fighting to cater the same set of users.
Current Scenario
Such a scenario has been taking place for quite some time now between the two photo sharing app rivals Instagram and Snapchat. Initially, they both had their unique features as a reason of which they experienced the different set of users. But, with time it seems that both are eventually losing their individuality and trying to mold a new identity. Well, from the technology perspective this should be a good thing whereas from a user perspective the line of distinction between the two is slowly diminishing. Another user perspective says that they'll use the one with better feature and hence options are always good. Therefore, it has all summed up to comparisons rather than choosing each for their niche quality (because honestly, there seems to be none).
Instagram Copying Snapchat
Instagram has very recently launched Live Video and disappearing photos in messages; that is one of the core functionality of Snapchat. The feature also resembles in allowing the post to disappear in 24 hours, but the catch here is some great add-ons that come with it. The Instagram Live Video can be as long as an hour and stored as a separate file like that in Facebook. The notifications will reach your friends as soon as they come online. The same applies to people whom you follow. You can check out all the live stories from Explore Tab under Stories bar.
For sharing videos and images, one needs to create them under "Stories" tab. The stories' camera will click images or record videos, and these can be then shared with one or a group of people of your choice. With Instagram Direct, your privacy is most importantly safeguarded as you can see people who're viewing those images and put a guard immediately (with public viewing), whereas for private viewing you can post the image/video directly into the message box.
Disappearing images/videos are also a part of Instagram Direct, where the inbox symbol for direct messages has now changed into an airplane icon. The disappearing stuff can be viewed from the top of your private inbox, and you can also find out what people have sent you along with their responses in a slide show format.
Snapchat Copied Too
Instagram after being acquired by Facebook Inc has become a more security conscious medium that respects privacy and maintains high quality in functionality. When Instagram came up with the "Stories" concept much like that of Snapchat but with better features. This feature alone added 100Mn users to Instagram in a span of mere three weeks. Great move Mark Zuckerberg as Facebook was getting a lot of spam users and its timeline was evolving slowly, having Instagram as a visual medium has helped a great deal. Also, it helps to trace fake Facebook accounts, as they cannot fake on Instagram with the fake profile. Instagram's stories allowed a rewind option to see what you've posted. Weeks after its release, Snapchat seemed to have loved the idea and incorporated it soon with minor changes. Instagram boasted of a more permanent photo-storing app and this feature was copied by Snapchat in the form of 'memories.'
Instagram has made to the 600Mn user's mark with its recent feature launches and is aggressively heading for much more. Snapchat, on the other hand, is unwilling to give up. So, it is for us to watch out what happens next.