Instagram Stories: Nick Jonas, Demi Lovato, Serena Williams help unveil new feature

Instagram has tapped the social media talents of celebrities like Ciara, Nick Jonas, Demi Lovato, Serena Williams, and Kevin Hart to help introduce its new Stories feature, one of its biggest evolutions to date.

From Williams’ journey to the 2016 Olympics in Rio to a day on tour with Lovato, Jonas, and Calvin Harris, some of the platform’s top-followed celebrities are set to offer a personal preview of Instagram Stories as they document their daily lives in conjunction with the social media giant’s latest update.

Instagram Stories allow users to share multiple photos and videos in a slideshow format; in other words, you can now share little moments from your day with a customized group of followers as you scroll through theirs at your leisure. New text and drawing tools are also at your disposal, so if you want to draw laser beams coming out of your cat’s eyes or place an oversized baby bottle emoji in your hand, that’s now a thing.

Stories from people you follow — from friends to verified accounts — will be displayed in a bar at the top of your feed. When there’s something new to see, a colorful ring will appear around their profile photo. Your personal Instagram Story, which you can hide from select users (even if they follow you), will be active for 24 hours, and won’t appear on your profile grid or in your feed. Likes and public comments will not be available on Instagram Stories.

Joining the aforementioned celebrities previewing Instagram Stories are King Bach, PewDiePie, and Connor Franta, who will post exclusive content on their profiles. Instagram Stories will be unveiled globally over the next few weeks on iOS and Android devices. Check out a preview of the new feature’s functionality in the video below.