Instagram announced two new features today, live disappearing video on Instagram Stories and a new Snapchat competitor, disappearing photos and videos in Instagram Direct.

The disappearing messages should concern Snapchat because of the huge half billion strong user base of Instagram and the fact that Instagram is owned by Facebook which has nearly 3 billion active users. If these disappearing videos and images become popular on Instagram, why not add the features to Facebook or Facebook Messenger too?

Both features will be rolling out globally on iOS and Android over the next few weeks.

Live Video on Instagram Stories

Instagram is hoping that the disappearing aspect of their new live video feature will encourage posts that are more natural and spontaneous.

Just like with Facebook Live, you can go live instantly from the app and your friends will see notifications that you are live. You and your friends will be able to converse and post comments and you can stay on-air for up to an hour.

Although there won’t be an archive of your live videos, platform wide there will be some chosen to appear in Explore so that Instagram users can be inspired by others.

Instagram’s Snapchat Competitor

With this new feature Instagram users can send disappearing photos and videos to friends and groups, just like Snapchat. Again, the disappearing aspect is designed to encourage use of the feature between friends without the worry of making a perfect post. As with Snapchat you will see when someone saw your post of took a screenshot.

You can add typical embellishments that are currently available in the Instagram app such as drawing on the picture, but no Snapchat style filters have been announced so far.