Instagram and Snapchat are the most popular social media platforms among young audiences. Their unique features, stories, trends etc. keep the young audiences on their toes. Both the social media platforms are an essential part of today’s young audiences where you can find them spending their large amounts of time, especially snapchat where large concentrations of audience are between ages of 15-27.

So why so much hype about these apps especially among young people?
Let’s look at their features and how they compete with each other

Stories

Snapchat was the one who introduced the story format on social media. When snapchat was launched in 2011, people weren’t so sure about how the story format that vanishes in 24 hours will ever work. As snapchat was bound to be more private than other social media. But the success of snapchat proved how its uniqueness and features actually drew a large audience towards it. As a result, other social media also adopted the story format.

Instagram was the one who incorporated stories after the success of snapchat stories. Instagram stories became hugely more popular than snapchat stories in a variety of exciting features. Instagram stories give you features like music, GIFS, stickers, location, polls, link, etc. to add on stories which are far in quantity and quality. Instagram basically overtook Snapchat stories. Snapchat’s turning down Facebook’s offer to acquire snapchat in 2013 actually cost them as Facebook introduced improved story format on Instagram.
Even though feature wise Instagram saves the day, nothing can beat the exclusive snapchat filters. 75% of snapchat users engage with filters. The statistics attracted many brands to advertise using the filters where they make captivating and thrilling sponsored filters to gain more reach. Pepsi and Netflix are good examples of brands using snapchat filters to advertise.

Privacy concerns

As for the privacy matters, many young audiences consider snapchat as a credible platform that informs them who took a screenshot of their story. This feature is still not in Instagram and that’s where snapchat wins. Because even though Instagram stories are better than Snapchat stories, some unique features of Snapchat are still limited to snapchat.
One of the unique things about Snapchat is the ‘snaps’. According to statistics, over 4 billion snaps are sent on a daily basis. That’s a huge number! This is very beneficial especially for businesses to target the young audience at the right place where they are. Youngsters are constantly engaged in sending snaps daily to their friends. Why is it so easy to send a snap is because the camera opens first when you open the snapchat app and you can easily send the snaps without putting too much effort and even for stories the steps are easy and limited. Instagram requires you to go through different navigations like first to open the app then to go to the top right corner to select a story and then to be able to choose the content before uploading. Young audience doesn’t like to go through more steps. The easier the way, the more the young audience will attract towards the particular social media app.
While both the apps have pretty much similar features about who you can choose to view your story and create your own close friend list who can watch your stories.

The purpose

Snapchat is a personal social media platform which  focuses on providing privacy security with added amazing and beautiful filters. As for Instagram it is all about visuals and latest trends.
While both the apps have paid advertisements for businesses, as a business it is necessary to understand where your target audience spends more time.

The final take away…..

Both the social media have its own unique touch that attracts audiences especially the young ones. no matter which feature is comfortable for you and where, it finally depends on your perspective. Both the platforms always make sure their features are convenient and better for you.