Instagram to add a live video feature in future updates

Instagram has already made moves in the past to dethrone Snapchat as the reigning king of social media, but it sounds like the company is gearing up for another assault. Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom has confirmed that they’re planning to add live streaming capabilities to the app in the near future.

Instagram’s parent company, Facebook, has already embraced the live streaming movement with some success. And if the numbers are any indication, the company isn’t afraid to put a good amount of money and resources into promoting the feature on their site. For that reason, it’s unsurprising that their attention is now turning to Instagram.

Instagram has a lot to gain from jumping on the live streaming bandwagon—as one of the fastest growing mediums, live streaming is quickly being adopted into the day-to-day lives of social media enthusiasts. Although YouTube and Facebook both offer live streaming capabilities—and Periscope remains one of the original live streaming apps—there’s no clear front runner when it comes to determining which platform reigns supreme. As Instagram works to stay relevant with its users, adding a live streaming platform is just one more way that they’ll attempt to bring in more users and keep them loyal to the platform.

The live streaming feature appears to still be in testing, so there’s no saying when it’ll be available for end users. But it’ll be interesting to see how the added feature will influence the behavior of its users—it could be just the push users need to ditch their current live streaming platform for a new one.

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