Instagram's New Feature Copies Snapchat's Stories

Facebook Inc FB introduced a new feature for its photo and video sharing social media property, Instagram called "Stories."

Stories is a new feature that allows Instagram users to "share all the moments of your day, not just the ones you want to keep on your profile."

Users can bring their "story to life" through videos and photos which disappear after 24 hours and will no longer appear on a profile grid or in a feed.

Sound Familiar?

According to Recode's Kurt Wagner, Instagram "cloned" Snapchat's Stories feature and not only took a page out of Snapchat's book, it took "a chapter or two."

Wagner stated that Instagram's "new" feature is in essence a "replica" of Snapchat's Stories features and the "similarities are striking" - including the features name. As such, Instagram's Stories feature is either "the most sincere form of flattery" or "the most blatant form of plagiarism."

Nevertheless, Wagner argued that Instagram does stand to benefit from the new feature for two main reasons:

• Instagram's users aren't sharing as many posts as they used to and the new feature could address the sharing problem
• Instagram's popularity lags that of Snapchat so any new feature could give the social media platform a boost.

"Stories are super popular on Snapchat, so it stands to reason they'll also be super popular on Instagram, which has a similar, albeit much larger, audience," Wagner concluded.

CNNTech's Seth Fiegerman Tweeted, "Facebook copies Snapchat for the 15th* time *give or take another dozen," while CNBC's Jay Yarow noted "Facebook is obsessed with Snapchat. "