Instagram News & Updates: Stickers For Stories, Hands-Free Video Recording And More New Features

Instagram just never stops introducing one new feature after another as it aims to beat its rival Snapchat and boost its numbers. The popular photo and video-sharing app now allows users to put stickers that give the context of an Instagram Stories post, such as the place and weather where an image was taken and lets users take videos without having to press and hold the record button.

Accessing the stickers just takes tapping the smiley on the top right corner of the screen on Instagram's camera, which will then give you a selection of stickers that show when and where the image was taken, as well as a range of other options. Christmas-themed stickers will be available for the holiday season, according an Instagram blog post.

Instagram's stickers are just one of new features that mirror those of Snapchat, its main competitor, Fortune reports. Earlier, Instagram launched Stories, where users can post photos and videos that disappear the next day, and then added a feature that allows users to send images that vanish after being viewed as private messages.

Aside from stickers, Instagram Stories also now has hands-free video recording. This allows users to record videos with just a single tap and removes the need to press and hold the record button. The Verge says this new feature is Instagram's strongest advantage over Snapchat so far.

With the latest update, Instagram users can now also bookmark posts by others, close the comments section of some posts, remove certain followers from private accounts, and align multiple text fields over an image. At least for users with phones running on iOS, stories from the past 24 hours can now be saved as a single video.

The new tools follow a host of features that Instagram launched this year, such as the ability for verified accounts to go live via Stories and for everyone to include links in Stories posts.