Instagram joins the live streaming club

Instagram is joining the live video streaming game.

As parent company Facebook continues to advertise its own live platform, the photo-sharing site announced on Monday that it would be bringing the feature to its 500 million users.

Similar to Facebook, it's relatively easy to start a broadcast, just tap the camera icon and swipe over to the "live" tab and click the "start Live video" button. As with a Facebook Live video, an indicator at the top of your screen will signal that you're broadcasting and provide an indication of the amount of people tuning in. Users can comment and "heart," or like, your videos as well.

Those who follow you and interact with you on the service will see a notification that you are live, just as they would on Facebook.

Unlike Facebook Live, however, Instagram will delete the videos from your story once the broadcast is over.

The feature will be added as part of an update to Instagram Stories, Instagram's take on Snapchat's popular feature that lets users share photos and videos publicly to all of their followers. The company is also adding an "Explore" tab to view other live videos on the service. In a blog post announcing the update, the company said over 100 million people use the feature.

In a bid to keep up with Snapchat, who's creating a national stir with its $129 Spectacles sunglasses and rumored to be preparing for a $25 billion public offering, Instagram is also adding the ability for messages sent directly to friends and groups to disappear. The company is even updating the Instagram Direct messaging portion to look more like Snapchat's app.

Groups are Instagram's big differentiator, allowing you to easily message friends and see if they've viewed your posts as well as their responses.

While Snapchat will let you send messages to those who don't follow you directly, Instagram will require that the person you are sending the disappearing message to be following your account.

:story: USA Today