Instagram today announced two new features and both of them have to do with the Stories. Stories are small video clips that stick around for 24 hours and then disappear to the aether. With the latest update though, you can store those memories forever.
The first new Stories feature is called Highlights. The basics of what this allows you to do is take Stories that you’ve shared and group them into a featured post right on the top of your profile page.
Highlights will show up right underneath your bio and they’ll stay there until you remove them. What’s really cool about this feature is being able to single out specific events, like a concert, or specific people! Here’s how Instagram describes this new feature:
The second feature that is coming to Stories is called Archive. This feature is passive and active all the time, so you don’t have to do anything special to take advantage of it. When your regular Stories expire after 24 hours, they will be automatically archived. On your profile there is an Archive button that will show you your post archive and allow you to switch to your Stories Archive.
From there you will be able to view, share, or add to a highlight right from your archive. For those that don’t want the auto-archive feature, you will be able to turn it off.
This news comes after rumors that a “regram” button was being tested. While the Archive feature is now available from those tests, there is no news on the status of the other features that are being piloted.
Instagram is a free download from the App Store.
