Instagram was born as a photo-sharing platform, before evolving to become an all-in, Swiss Army knife of social media platforms.
One of the things that made Instagram a pop culture icon, is its Stories feature. Since its inception in 2016, Stories have become an essential part of Instagram, with dozens of millions published on the platform daily. Stories has gone beyond offering an ability to share short-term content with a 24-hour time limit, to become a handy marketing tool.
This time, the company that clearly knows its potential, launches an update.
Meta introduces Instagram with a bunch of new practical stickers, like 'Add Yours Music', 'Frames', and 'Cutouts' for creative content.
The goal, according to its announcement, is to let users "kick off music trends, create your own custom stickers from your photos or videos, post a secret story and more."
This, is to help users "more creative in Stories."
First up, is the ability to share favorite songs with Add Yours Music.
Combining the fun of the Add Yours feature with the music sticker, the Add Yours Music sticker allows users to share a song that fits their mood with their followers, and who can add their music too.
To do this, users can tap the stickers icon, then tap on the icon that says 'Add Yours Music.' From there, they can select the '+ / Add Music' to choose a song from Instagram’s music library.
Once the Story is posted, friends will be able to add their own song using the 'Add Yours' button.
The second sticker, is the Frames sticker feature.
"Whether you want to shine a spotlight on memories with friends or throw back to a special moment, the Frames sticker turns any photo into an instant print. To reveal the content inside, your followers will have to shake their phone to develop the image," said Instagram.
To add a Frames sticker, users can tap on the stickers icon while creating a Story, and choose the Frames sticker option. This will open up users photo gallery, where they can choose one image to be framed. Users can then add caption to the image if they want, and Instagram will automatically add the date and timestamp of when the photo was taken.
After the Story is posted, friends and followers can shake their phone or tap the 'shake to reveal' button to develop the image inside the frame.
Third, is the Uncover Hidden Stories with the Reveal Sticker.
When users post a hidden Story to their friends and followers, they can use this sticker to help them uncover it.
"The only way for them to see the content is to send you a DM," said Instagram.
To make the Reveal sticker, users can tap on the 'Reveal' option while creating a Story, after selecting the stickers icon.
Once user shave selected the Reveal sticker, they will be prompted to type a hint for friends about what they might find behind their blurred Story. Users can tap on the 'Preview' icon to see how the Story will appear to others.
And once the Story is posted, others will be able to see the Story content, only if they DMed the sender, and after the sender approved the Story to be revealed to the them.
Lastly, Instagram also introduces a Cutouts sticker feature, which will automatically turn any part of a video or photo in users' camera roll into a custom sticker that can be added to a Story or Reel.
Once a cutout is created, the sticker is automatically saved, and accessible in the sticker tray.
To create a Cutout sticker, users can tap on the stickers icon, to select the 'Cutouts' option, to then select a photo or video where the subject that wants to be cut out is clearly visible.
Instagram will automatically detect the subject to be cut out. But if it cannot, users can manually select the object they want for the sticker.
Tap the 'Use sticker' button to add it.
While the new stickers initially generate hype, they are becoming annoying over time.
Stickers are so widely used, simply because they can add a lot of fun and creativity to posts. However, they have a high tendencies of becoming annoying, especially when they're overwhelmingly overused.
For example, new stickers feature tend to attract a lot of usage, and what this means, more people will pack their Stories with too many stickers, and this can clutter up the screen and make it hard to focus on the actual content.
Then, there is the repetitiveness, in which the same sticker is used over and over again.
Also, stickers can create unnecessary interruption because sometimes, stickers can obscure the content underneath, especially if they're placed in the wrong spot.
Stickers can also distract animations of they're overly flashy or constantly moving, for example.
And worst of all, using stickers that don't really relate to the content can feel forced and out of place, makes a Story lack the context it needs.
If the Story is part of a marketing tool, too much is never a good thing.