I really hope that the Facebook team at least asked Snapchat to borrow their idea..  Probably not.  In fact, it’s nothing like that, it’s a great idea that Instagram is implementing in a very traditional manner with their own unique spin.  In addition, Snapchat is an atrocious mobile application that seemingly runs quite well on iOS; however, on Android the app experience is abysmal and is a shell of it’s iOS counterpart, partially in part because of the Snapchat team itself.

This update officially makes Instagram the “one stop shop” for visual media.  Photos, short videos and now stories that are a compilation of your last 24 hours that can be shared with all of your followers or just a core group.  Instagram is already a well-liked app that’s available on both iOS and Android and it is equally consistent on both.  TechCrunch is calling the feature “..Snapchat for adults..”, which I can agree.  Instagram has a refined and polished UI while Snapchat is an utter mess.   [See TechCrunch’s full story here with a complete breakdown listing the similarities and differences here.]  Snapchat has seemed like a children’s playground since it’s inception.

Is this the nail in the coffin for Snapchat?  From bad video quality on Android, to a horrible mess with RAM on the platform, this could make many users shift their content from one platform to another.

Bottom line:  Instagram has made a good move here while still keeping traditional posts front and center, they’ve added stories of people that you interact most to the top of the app.  This update will likely get an entire new audience into the foray of creating and sharing their photo/video journal to the world due in part to the maturity and clean look of the UI.  There are simply many people (myself included) who stayed far, far away from Snapchat and now that Instagram has introduced it’s own — it’s game time.

Creating your very own story is just one swipe away.