Instagram removes 24-hour recency requirement for photos, videos posted to Stories

People can now upload any photo or video from their phones’ camera rolls to their Instagram Stories, no matter whether it was taken an hour ago or a week ago.

When Instagram launched its version of Snapchat’s ephemeral Stories format in August 2016, people could post any photo or video they had taken and saved to their phones’ camera rolls within the past 24 hours. Now the Facebook-owned photo-and-video app has removed that recency requirement (Stories themselves still disappear after 24 hours). Opening up Stories to full photo and video libraries should make it easier for people to fill up their Stories but could also result in Stories feeling less in-the-moment.

For brands, Instagram’s move allows for more pre-produced Story posts without any obvious drawbacks like on Snapchat.

In July 2016, Snapchat similarly allowed people to upload photos and videos from their camera rolls to Stories, regardless of when they were taken. But Snapchat adds a white border to those posts and a label that discloses that they were posted from a camera roll and when they were taken.

On Instagram, these older posts can be made to look like normal posts without viewers being any the wiser. When an older photo or video is uploaded to a Story on Instagram, the app automatically adds a sticker showing the date on which the photo or video was originally taken. And people can change the color, size and position of this date like any other sticker. But they can also remove it from the post.

About The Author

Tim Peterson

Tim Peterson, Third Door Media’s Social Media Reporter, has been covering the digital marketing industry since 2011. He has reported for Advertising Age, Adweek and Direct Marketing News. A born-and-raised Angeleno who graduated from New York University, he currently lives in Los Angeles. He has broken stories on Snapchat’s ad plans, Hulu founding CEO Jason Kilar’s attempt to take on YouTube and the assemblage of Amazon’s ad-tech stack; analyzed YouTube’s programming strategy, Facebook’s ad-tech ambitions and ad blocking’s rise; and documented digital video’s biggest annual event VidCon, BuzzFeed’s branded video production process and Snapchat Discover’s ad load six months after launch. He has also developed tools to monitor brands’ early adoption of live-streaming apps, compare Yahoo’s and Google’s search designs and examine the NFL’s YouTube and Facebook video strategies.