【Japan Archives】

If you've spent any time watching Instagram Stories over the last year,Japan Archives you've probably noticed a trend: Posts that don't have any photos or videos at all. With polls, quizzes, text updates, and AMA-style question and answer sessions, Instagram Stories are moving beyond their photographic roots.

Now Instagram is redesigning its in-app camera to make it easier to create non-image Stories posts using Instagram's "creative" tools, like polls, questions, and GIFs.

It may seem like a relatively minor change for Instagram, which has been steadily adding features to Stories for some time. But it highlights just how crucial Stories has become to Instagram's engagement, and how the format has evolved.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

SEE ALSO: Here's how to add captions to your Instagram Stories to make them more accessible

Features like polls and quizzes and static text posts used to be the kind of content you'd expect to see in your Facebook News Feed, not in Instagram. But as Instagram has grown to more than a billion users, it's started to become the more dominant social network for many. And these users have begun to use Stories in a way that previous generations may have used Facebook.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

With the change, rolling out in the next few weeks, Instagram's camera will be separated into three modes, instead of the cluttered mess it currently does: live, camera, and create. The "camera" section is where you can find Instagram's camera effects, like Boomerang and Superzoom, as well as the augmented reality effects.

While the new "create" section is where you can make non-image posts. You can begin a post with GIFs, a poll, or other sticker, similar to how you'd create a text post from the Instagram camera today. These tools will still be available to add to photo and video posts after the fact, but you can also use them as standalone posts.

---

Featured Video For You

---

Behold, the AI model that turns rough sketches to photorealistic landscapes

---

Topics Facebook Instagram Social Media

• Science
• Tech
• Shopping
• Games
• Deals
• Entertainment
• Digital Culture
• Social Good

• Best keyboard deals: Save on Asus gaming keyboards at Amazon
• Parting Waters
• Impolite Society
• Nowhere to Live, Nowhere to Die
• What cracked the Milky Way's giant cosmic bone? Scientists think they know.
• Inglorious Bastards
• Who Are Ready to Rouse Up Leviathan?
• Making Migrants Disappear
• Operation Mensch
• Lost at CPAC

• Why do people hate Ed Sheeran?
• iPhone update: iOS 14 comes out today
• 27 otherworldly astronomy photos that will truly blow your mind
• Lyft will finally develop its own self
• Elon Musk reveals what his tunnel under LA has to do with Mars
• Swarm of locusts invading Russia looks like the end of the world
• Beyoncé's new wax figure looks absolutely nothing like Beyoncé
• How to combat the invisible labor divide in your own home
• Facebook Messenger now lets you watch videos with friends
• Fans come to Pink's aid after she got mom

• The State of PC Gaming in 2016
• Blunt Force
• Parting Waters
• Queers Without Money
• Watch how an old Venus spacecraft tumbled before crashing to Earth
• The Burbs Have Eyes
• Dreck of the Irish
• Bard of Movement
• Astronomers saw one galaxy impale another. The damage was an eye
• Fire and Wolf Share a Fondness for Male Beauty

• Astronomers saw one galaxy impale another. The damage was an eye
• Low, Dishonest Days
• More Fog, More War
• Partners in Crime
• Inside the Murky Process of Getting Games on Steam
• Fire and Wolf Share a Fondness for Male Beauty
• The Fear and the Fix
• The Desire to Be Visible
• Exceptionally rare radio sources detected in the distant universe
• Soul Aristocrats