Instagram is absolutely crushing Snapchat and there's no end in sight

Instagram is just rubbing it in now.
 By 
Karissa Bell
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Now Instagram's just rubbing it in.

In case the Facebook-owned company hadn't already made it abundantly clear that burying Snapchat under an endlessly growing pile of lookalike products was its top priority, Instagram has some fresh salt to rub into Snap's wounds: Instagram Stories now has 200 million daily active users -- more than Snapchat's total daily active user base.

Put another way: In 2017 alone Instagram has added nearly as many daily active users to Stories as Snapchat added to its whole platform in 2016.

Ouch.

To mark the occasion Instagram is also announcing -- what else -- new features that look like they were ripped straight out of Snapchat's playbook:

New geostickers: Instagram is upping the game on its geofilter-like "geostickers," which are specially designed stickers for local landmarks in a handful of cities. Now, Instagram is expanding the feature to Chicago, London, Madrid, and Tokyo. All the new stickers have been created by locals, according to Instagram, and you can view the artist's name by tapping on the sticker within the app.

Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Sticker pinning: Instagram Stories now allows you to "pin" stickers to an area of the video so the sticker will stay in one place even as the object in the video moves around the frame. Sound familiar? That's because it's very nearly the same as Snapchat's motion-tracking emoji rolled out last year.

Selfie stickers: Finally, Instagram is adding a new "selfie stickers" feature which lets you create custom stickers to use in the app by taking a selfie a of your face. While not quite the same as Snapchat's scissors tool, it's damn close.

This all comes amidst a bigger onslaught from Facebook that's seen Snapchat clones pop up everywhere from the News Feed and Messenger to WhatsApp and, obviously, Instagram. And, now that Instagram has passed a fresh milestone, it would seem there's no end in sight.

Sorry, Snapchat.

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Karissa Bell

Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.

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