Instagram Stories Introduces Direct Replies in Desperate Attempt to Be An Exact Duplicate of Snapchat

In the latest in the Snapchat/Instagram saga… Instagram Stories just became even more like Snapchat with its latest feature!

Users can now respond to 24-hour stories directly with their own, short-term photo or video response. It’s a feature that has long been offered by Snapchat, and brings Instagram even closer to duplicating the original disappearing stories app.

“Starting today, you can reply to stories with a photo or video. From selfies to Boomerangs, now you can be even more fun and playful when you respond to friends,” Instagram shared on social media. “To reply with a photo or a video, tap the new camera button while you’re watching a story.”

From there, it goes down in the dm. “Today’s update is just one of the ways we’re working to make Direct the best place to have fun, visual conversations with friends on Instagram.”

To get started, update your Instagram app, check out a friend’s story, and then reply as you please!

View this post on Instagram

Starting today, you can reply to stories with a photo or video. From selfies to Boomerangs, now you can be even more fun and playful when you respond to friends. To reply with a photo or a video, tap the new camera button while you’re watching a story. You can use any creative tools in the camera, including face filters, stickers and Rewind. Replies also include a sticker of the story that you can move around and resize. When a friend replies to your story with a photo or a video, you’ll see it in your inbox. You can tap to view it and also see a sticker of the original story that’s only visible to you. As with disappearing photos and videos in Direct, your friends will know when you’ve taken a screenshot or replayed a reply. Today’s update is just one of the ways we’re working to make Direct the best place to have fun, visual conversations with friends on Instagram. To learn more about photo and video replies, visit help.instagram.com. These updates are available as part of Instagram version 10.28 and above for iOS in the Apple App Store and for Android in Google Play.

A post shared by Instagram (@instagram) on Jul 6, 2017 at 8:01am PDT

With the way things are going, this Snapchat/Instagram comparison conversation isn’t going to continue forever… Because, they’re already pretty much the same damn thing.