Instagram Stories Embrace The GIF

Instagram Stories already offer quite a few different features for you to take advantage of, but if you ever feel like the stories you post need a little extra pizzaz, the new feature rolling out today might be for you. Instagram has announced that Stories now support animated GIF stickers, allowing you to add a little extra flair to the photos and videos you post as stories.

These stickers are provided by GIPHY, which is a service you'll be familiar with if you like to send GIFs through Facebook Messenger. Adding one of those stickers to your story is simple enough – you'll need tap the sticker button as you normally would, which is where you'll find a new GIF option. Tap that option and then you'll be able to search for a specific sticker or see which GIF stickers are currently trending among Instagram users.

Once you've selected your GIF, you'll place it on your story just like you would any other sticker. Instagram says that GIPHY has animated stickers for "just about anything," so as long as you're willing to spend time searching for a specific one, you should be able to find a sticker that fits perfectly with what you're looking to express with your story.

Beyond the stickers that Instagram is adding today, it also revealed that you'll soon be able to upload videos and photos of any size without having to worry about losing some of the content to cropping. Regardless of a photo's orientation, you'll be able to pinch to share it in its original dimensions, with Instagram filling in the rest of the screen with a colored gradient based on the colors in the photo or video you shared.

So, we're not getting a ton of groundbreaking new features today, but what Instagram is adding should definitely make the experience better for end users. Animated GIF stickers are rolling out today as part of Instagram 29 on iOS and Android, while these changes to photo uploads won't start appearing for a few more weeks.