Instagram Stories is celebrating its 200 million user count (up from 150 million in January) with a major creative update, the bulk of which is centered around stickers. We know what you're thinking: Isn't there a new sticker pack almost every week?
Instagram has not been shy about its sticker love; it released options for the days of the week, Easter, and Passover in recent weeks. But the stickers rolling out with today's update are not just any stickers.
World, meet selfie stickers. Selfie stickers are exactly what they sound like. Within Stories, you'll now be able to take a mini-selfie, which becomes a sticker that you can edit and save for later use. This is basically an easier-to-use version of Snapchat's scissors tool, so we're expecting to see many an Instagram Story that's packed with sticker after sticker of someone's head. When you want to access your selfie sticker and others that you've used recently, just tap the smiley-face icon and swipe right.
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You'll also find new Geostickers for Chicago, London, Madrid, and Tokyo, all designed by local artists. Instagram is distinguishing these from Snapchat's Geofilters by attaching each artist's username to their sticker, so you can go to their account to check out more of their artwork.
Besides stickers, there are also a few new user tools in today's update. Instagram Stories is taking another cue from Snapchat and launching pinning, which lets you attach a sticker or text to a specific object or location in a video. If that object moves in your video, the sticker will move with it.
And finally, there's a new way to eliminate multiple video do-overs. Now, when you want to film a video in hands-free mode, just tap and hold down the button to see a countdown to the start of the recording.
For a complete guide to creating and pinning Instagram's new stickers, head here.
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