Instagram rips off yet another feature from Snapchat
Are you ready for this? Instagram just copied yet another feature from Snapchat.
Instagram updated its apps Tuesday with a new "geostickers" feature in Stories that is nearly the same as -- you guessed it -- Snapchat's geofilters.
Debuting first in New York City and Jakarta, Indonesia, the new stickers are tied to specific neighborhoods and landmarks within those cities and are "designed to match the vibe of the location."
Importantly, unlike Snapchat's filters, which are largely user-generated, Instagram's geostickers appear to be designed by Instagram -- at least for now. It seems likely the company will eventually open up the stickers to more cities, at which point it could expand the sticker collection as well.
The stickers themselves live in the stickers section of Stories. The app already had some location-based stickers, though the new "geostickers" are tied specifically to landmarks and neighborhoods, rather than just a city. (Instagram says each city currently has "more than a dozen" geostickers available.)
Another notable difference between Instagram's geostickers and Snapchat's geofilters: Instagram's stickers link to the app's location pages. So, tapping on, say, a Brooklyn sticker in a story will take you to Instagram's location page for Brooklyn.
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.
