A striking competition between two grand social media platforms — Instagram and Snapchat — is causing users to choose a side based on their preferred app and has sparked a rivalry with the two groups.
Snapchat is focused on private, person-to-person photo sharing, but you can now use it for a range of different tasks, including sending short videos, live video chatting, messaging, creating cartoon-like Bitmoji avatars, and sharing a chronological “story” that’s broadcasted to all your followers. There’s even a designated “Discovery” area that showcases short-form content from major publishers like Buzzfeed.
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Similar to Snapchat, Instagram is a social networking app made for sharing photos and videos, which are added to your profile and your followers’ timelines. You could now upload photos and videos which can be edited with various filters, and organized with tags and location information to your story.
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Not to mention, Instagram is one of the most popular platforms for influencer marketing, even more so than Snapchat. Most celebrities and big influencers have Instagram pages with thousands, even millions of followers. They create stories as a way to connect with their large following on a more personal level. This poses the ideal opportunity for influencers to slip ads in and promote products or services.
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About two years ago, Instagram launched a near identical version of one of Snapchat’s main features, Stories. The new Instagram feature had the same name, a similar look, and the same function: Friends could be able to share photo and video updates on their profiles that would disappear after 24 hours.
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The launch of Instagram Stories was just the beginning. Over the course of the past year, Instagram has added face filters, location tags, stickers, drawing tools, and disappearing photo messages, which has led to a fierce competition between the two apps.
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When taken in a poll, many preferred Instagram over Snapchat and backed their decision by stating that it’s easier to manage, contains more content, better memes. Many argued that Instagram could be used at almost anytime, but they use Snapchat maybe once a week.
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However, those who favor Snapchat say that Instagram is just an imitation of Snapchat. They emphasized that privacy and its targeting of younger age groups are why they prefer to use Snapchat.
