How Long Can You View Your Instagram Stories? It's All Temporary

Just when you thought you had your social media game down, Instagram comes along with yet another feature to mess with your scene. Although this time around, the feature looks eerily familiar. On Tuesday, Instagram rolled out their Instagram Stories app, and users were all, "Wait a minute, what?" Instagram Stories is basically Snapchat Stories 2.0, and users are wondering how long you can view your Instagram Stories and whether they'll be able to see them again once they're gone.

According to the Instagram blog, Instagram Stories is,

... a new feature that lets you share all the moments of your day, not just the ones you want to keep on your profile. As you share multiple photos and videos, they appear together in a slideshow format: your story.

So now you don't have to worry about limiting your posts to just pictures; you can share videos and slideshows with your Instagram followers. But how long will those videos be available? The company explains,

With Instagram Stories, you don’t have to worry about overposting. Instead, you can share as much as you want throughout the day — with as much creativity as you want. You can bring your story to life in new ways with text and drawing tools. The photos and videos will disappear after 24 hours and won’t appear on your profile grid or in feed.

The videos will let you add doodles, emojis, and text your images to the top of your newsfeed. You know, sort of like Snapchat. "Stories are compilations of Snaps that create a narrative," the company wrote on its blog. "Stories honor the true nature of storytelling — Snaps appear in chronological order with a beginning, middle and end."

If you are worried about who will be able to see your Instagram Stories, fear not. According to Instagram, Stories follow "the privacy settings of your account," meaning that, "if you set your account to private, your story is visible only to your followers." Spokespersons explained that users would also be able to hide their stories from specific parties, for privacy reasons — similar to Facebook's select groups feature — even if those users follow you back. In addition, you'll also be able to see which followers have viewed your content.

"When watching your own story, swipe up to check out who’s seen each photo and video," the company explained. "You can even choose to feature a particular part of your story by posting it on your profile."

So the good news is, if you happen to cobble together a story that ends up being atrocious/embarrassing/too personal or what have you, it will only be out in the universe for 24 hours. In other news, if you have Snapchat Stories, you probably already know all of this.