[dharmon]

Since this is clearly a direct shot at Snapchat, I can't help but wonder if they would have been better off just making a new app rather than integrating into Instagram.

I think the kiddos like Snapchat partially because it's not FB, or Instagram. I think especially you'll lose them once they have to start thinking about who's seeing what.

Nevertheless, I imagine non-tween Instagram users will enjoy this addition. Personally, I like the idea of ephemeral photos. For some reason I have some stupid mental block to sending pics, even though I know its easy to delete them from my album.

[dtien]

I disagree, I think integrating it with their main product is the perfect way to release this. Just look at Periscope ( and Vine ) living as separate products from Twitter, vs FB releasing FB Live deeply embedded into their primary product. The likelihood of the mainstream users willingness to try out and adopt the new product/feature is increased.

And in this case, I think all the additional features that comes with IG Stories is actually very cohesive with the rest of the IG features. All the new stickers, overlays, filters, and I'm sure they'll be adding the same animated filters are all very natural extensions of the IG user experience.

So many people use Snapchat as a photo/filter editor to then share on IG/Twitter/FB, now they can do that very same experience directly in IG and share it with their existing fans.

And maybe an overlooked aspect is IG's better UX vs snapchat's bizarre stubbornness to maintain their oddly user antagonistic UI.

[dharmon]

I guess it comes down to goals. If the goal is to capture the young crowd whose attention Snapchat stole, then I still think integrating into Instagram won't work. A separate app is still a long-shot, but a long-shot is better than certain failure.

But like I said, for everybody else, I think it will go over well.

In other words, I think absolutely no tweens are going to abandon Snapchat for this. And that's perfectly fine so long as they're not expecting them to.

[dtien]

You could be right, the 'tweens'/millennials could just choose to stick with SC. But I think it's just as telling with SC's recent spate of features that are moving away from the ephemeral nature of the app ( ie Memories ). Where you can store or save Snaps or Stories.... oh you mean sort of like a personal gallery? Which leads naturally to newsfeed.

Bottom line is that the photo/messaging apps are converging. And I don't think there's necessarily any loyalty to a particular platform especially if they have very similar features.

The crowd will move to the platform where their friends are, and where the celebs/bloggers/artists/influencers are. And IMO I think IG has a slight advantage with that group at this point because of the non-ephemeral nature of their app which led/leads more naturally to those types building their 'brand' and following. Nobody wants to spend hours and energy creating content that simply disappears. But these types have followed the crowd onto SC and lived by the SC rules, but I'd have to believe they would prefer the other model if they had a choice.

So I guess what I'm saying is that these 2 apps are converging to the same point, albeit from different ends of the spectrum with different pressures. And once that happens, loyalty to a platform goes out the window, and being able to capture the cool kids and influencers will be the key to where the rest of the crowd goes. So I don't think it's 'certain failure' from IG's point of view, and certainly still anyones game.