The human behavior is changing day by day so as the requirements. We always look for something new to add on in our day to day life. For same sake, it’s fair to say that Social media platforms are forever changing and keeping us on our toes. We would be lying if we say that there hasn’t been a time in the year that we find new every day where we have been feeling like we are playing to catch up with the changes. Recently Instagram has stolen the notable focus by introducing the new change in Instagram stories i.e. Instagram Focus Portrait Mode.
The social media stories have a special place in our heart as it helps us to share our each “special or not so special moments”. It takes us away from our carefully-curated feeds and encouraging us to be more ‘of the moment’ with our posts. Over 300 million people are now using Instagram Stories every day and our dedication towards it keep Instagram introducing new updates as well.
Update:
Instagram announced the launch of a new “Focus” mode on 11 April-18 which is designed to allow Instagram users to take portrait images/create bokeh images with a softly blurred background. Bokeh represents an aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image produced by a lens. The feature is available as a new option next to “Superzoom” when you open up the camera. It can be used with the front or rear-facing cameras. Instagram says – while using Focus Mode – as soon as someone is in the shot, the person will stay in focus while the background becomes blurred. This is the special feature of Focus mode that it only works with a person in the frame which is quite appreciated by selfie lovers.
Plus point of this mode is that it can be used with either photos or videos. It’s designed to be similar to the Portrait Mode feature available on Apple’s newer dual-lens devices. While Portrait Mode is a hardware-based feature has been generally available only iPhone series like iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X, whereas Instagram’s Focus mode is designed as a software-based feature, making it available on a wider range of devices. For this update, you need to update the latest version of Instagram to have focussed images. Whoila!
Whether it’s a Snapchat or Instagram, the stories are the most successful feature. Although the similarities to Snapchat are undeniable, it definitely paid off, raising the heat in competition between the companies. It has caused many Snapchat fans jump the ship and join Instagram which led Instagram user numbers to soar in 2017. By looking stats, Instagram Stories had 250 million daily users by August 2017 as compared to Snapchat’s 166 million. Meanwhile, Instagram has been evolving and lets us see stories on Desktop as well by November, which shows just how much of an integral feature Instagram views it to be. Another feature becomes possible by December that user can possibly feature ‘Story Highlights’ on our profile, allowing us to showcase our most popular or important Story posts beyond the 24-hour limit.
With the same pace, Instagram will be introducing more happening features with an agenda to shift users to a more personal and immediate type of post that you find in the traditional feed. Instagram is heading in the direction of a more collaborative kind of social interaction on the platform by introducing – the Story polls.
Other New Update:
Instagram is also rolling out mention sticker on iOS, making it easier to for users to connect with their friends via Insta Stories. After the image is clicked from the stories camera, a user may open the sticker’s tray, tap the @mention sticker, and start typing the name of the account to be mentioned. This can then be rotated, scaled and placed wherever required.links. The company is also likely to be working on introducing video calls to the platform.
