Snapchat may have built an empire on ephemerality, but now that FOMO (which is to say, fear of missing out) is becoming more relevant every day, the concept of disappearing content may be … well, disappearing. At least, that appears to be Instagram’s strategy, now that it is giving users the option of saving public live broadcasts to your Instagram stories, where they can be viewed by your followers for 24 hours. That means that no longer will your followers have to worry about missing out on your content — instead, you can choose to share your live content even when it is no longer live.
While Instagram, for quite some time, appeared to be taking its cues from Snapchat, it now looks as though the photo-sharing platform is setting new precedents. This live video feature, after all, is not something that Snapchat has (yet) and it could help Instagram even further its lead over the rival social media app. Instagram Stories now boasts 250 million daily users, which represents a 50 million increase from its 200 million mark in April.
Snapchat, on the other hand, can only claim a total of 166 million daily users across its entire app — Instagram, for reference, has 700 million total users.
“From new creative tools to location stories, we’ve been focused on making it easier to share any moment and uncover stories from the accounts and interests that matter most to you,” Instagram told TechCrunch. “As a result, we are continuing to see strong growth both in the U.S. and internationally.”
And just maybe, this growth can be further bolstered by the change to Instagram Live videos.
The decision to make these videos accessible for longer periods of time could be a controversial one. After all, the instant disappearance of these videos one of the few truly differentiating factors for Instagram — Facebook Live and Twitter’s Periscope both allow for playbacks. That meant that Instagram Live videos were truly special, in a way.
But hey, at least now, your friends and families will not have to worry about missing out on any of your content. And isn’t that what matters most of all?
