Instagram today announced several new features heading to its mobile app that will improve the experience of sharing stories.
To start, users can now place GIFs on top of any photo or video shared via their stories. Instagram says hundreds of thousands of GIFs are available thanks to new integration with GIPHY. Further, Instagram users will soon be able to upload images and video of any shape or size to their story.
As is it today, content shared via stories is limited to the portrait orientation. Support for GIFs is available in Instagram v29 for Android and iOS today. The improved support for new photo/video shapes within stories will arrive in a few weeks.
Earlier this month, Instagram made it possible for users to share presence and/or status within the DM feature. People can see when their friends were last active in the app. This feature is turned on by default, meaning those who don’t want to share their activity with others will need to dive into the settings menu to deactivate the function.
