Instagram Stories Now Lets You Add Any Photo or Video

Instagram has recently added a long desired feature to Stories: the ability to add any picture or video from your camera roll to your story — even if it’s more than 24 hours old. Instagram originally had the limitation design in place so that the Stories could be more “in the moment” like its competitor Snapchat. This has since changed, and Instagram is giving up the spontaneity of their stories for the users.

The new feature to the social media app is easy to use. When users post a story, they simply swipe up to access photos from the device. This will show not only the photos and videos from the last 24 hours, but everything in a user’s Camera Roll. From here, you can just tap on whichever photo or video you want to share.

Additionally, uploading something more than 24 hours old will bring up a new sticker that will allow you to add content to the photo, like the date it was taken. You can still resize, rotate, and remove content on the photo, including the date, before you post it to your story.

This update does change the way users view (and use) stories, reflecting that it’s not so much about the here-and-now, but simply a way to share a picture or video that is less permanent. Arguably, younger Instagram users were already frequently uploading and deleting content on the regular feed, so this might have been a smart move on Instagram’s part.

Let us know in the comments below if you will be using this new update, or if you’d rather just post in-the-moment!