A year ago, Facebook owned Instagram decided to take on Snapchat directly after their takeover attempt failed. Facebook began the attack by copying features from Snapchat by introducing stories in Instagram. Since then, Instagram stories has grown exponentially in its popularity crossing over 250 million daily users, thus beating Snapchat's 166 million, as reported in June 2017. 

However, despite its huge popularity and user base, many of the users aren't aware of several new features baked into the app apart from taking pictures and videos and overlaying texts on them. So here are 4 tips and tricks that will help you to make your Instagram stories better. 

1.Choosing any color you want for texts and drawings 

Changing color of your overlay text and drawings in Instagram stories is pretty straight forward. You tap the pen or text icon and a series of color bubbles are shown in the bottom part of the screen. However, if you want to pick any color that is not found in the palettes, then this is how to do it. Just tap and hold on one of the color bubbles and it will take you to a color picker from where you can choose the color of your choice. 

2.Record videos hands-free 

Recording video for Instagram stories is a very simple process- just press and hold the on-screen shutter button. But, there will be times when you wanted to record videos hands-free. To do that, from the record screen swipe left till you reach the hands-free video recording option. Here, hit the record button and recording will start immediately after a short countdown. 

3.Create solid color background for your stories 

What if you don't want to post a photo or video, but a piece of text as your Instagram story? The best thing to do is to create a solid color background and overlay your text. However, instead of looking for a picture file with a solid color, you can add a solid color overlay into any picture very easily. To do that, tap the pen icon and pick the color you want. Then tap and hold on the screen for few seconds until the screen is filled with a solid color. 

4.Zooming in and out on video 

You record videos for the Instagram story by tapping and holding the shutter button. But, what to do if you want to zoom in on an object? To achieve zoom functionality in videos, hold down the record button with one finger and slide up with the same finger to zoom in. 
 

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