Instagram today released an update to its Stories feature that lets users add decorative and informative stickers to photos and videos. After snapping a picture or shooting a video in Stories, users will notice a new stickers button beside the standard text and drawing tools. Instagram is launching the feature with a collection of holiday-themed stickers, in addition to context-sensitive stickers for location, time, and temperature.
Just like adding your location to a standard Instagram post, selecting the location sticker brings up a list of nearby places (users can also use the search function). Viewers who see the story can then interact with the location sticker by tapping on it, which will bring up the map along with Top/Recent Posts about that location. Unlike standard Instagram posts, however, adding a location to a story will not make that story appear on the location’s info page.
The stickers for time, location, and weather each have multiple styles that can be cycled through by tapping on them before saving the story.
In addition to the holiday-themed stickers, Instagram has also released a seasonal “candy cane” art brush that can be used to create festive, delicious-looking drawings.
Today’s update also introduced hands-free video recording in Instagram Stories. Simply tap the record button once to begin a video, and again to stop it. The hands-free option can be found to the right of the Boomerang option at the bottom of the screen.
Other new features include the ability to place as much text as you want by repeatedly tapping the text button, and the option to save your entire story from the past 24 hours as a video to your phone (iOS only, for now). For the rest of the details, head on over to the Instagram blog.
