New GIF Feature: Is SnapChat the New Instagram?

In an ongoing social platform war, SnapChat is the latest company to introduce new features to wow its users. SnapChat has introduced a new feature which allows you to add Giphy (aka GIF) animated stickers to your snaps.

That is not even all–the company is also rolling out another cool feature. It will add tabs to the Friends and the Discover sections of the app. It is expected that introducing these tabs would make app navigation easier and more fluid.

GIFs in SnapChat posts

GIFs in Stories is indeed going to be an interesting add-on. This feature would particularly be cool in Nigeria. Why? We love GIFs!

From the popular Odunlade GIFs, to political GIFs, to even the trending ones about snakes, SnapChat now gives you the option of sharing these as snaps.

How does it work?

To include GIFs in your SnapChat posts, click the Sticker icon and search for the GIF you would like to share. GIF images can be scaled. To do this, you just pinch the screen with your fingers until it scales to the size you prefer.

In addition, GIF stickers can also be pinned onto your post. All you have to do is press and hold your sticker to a spot on your video, and the sticker will fit into whatever it is pinned to.

Is Snap the new Instagram?

Although the new GIF feature seems pretty cool, it may have been borrowed from a competing platform, Instagram. Interestingly, Instagram introduced GIF animations just a few weeks ago.

This is understandable, as in the last few years, SnapChat has been under severe pressure from Mark Zuckerberg’s social media platforms. Zuckerberg has copied a lot of SnapChat features and adapted them into his own platforms.

Features like disappearing Status Updates (aka Stories) and SnapChat filters have been copied on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram.

Snap’s “copying” of Instagram’s GIF feature, perhaps, shows that it too can play the “copycat” game.