File this one under Soon (TM). Facebook’s evolving social media chameleon app Instagram is rolling out another feature to help arm itself in the war for audience engagement. Today, Instagram announced the ability for users to save their Live broadcast, an ability the company had previously put on a roadmap after it launched its Snapchat clone, Instagram Stories.
The ability to save an Instagram Story feels like the natural progression of its well-received feature and allows the app to stand toe-to-toe with video streaming heavyweights such as parent company Facebook’s Live service and Twitter’s Periscope.
Starting today, you’ll have the option to save your live video to your phone at the end of a broadcast. While live videos will continue to disappear from the app when you’re done, this update gives you the flexibility to hold onto your video and re-watch it later, especially if something exciting happens during your broadcast that you want to remember or share.
After your live broadcast ends, tap Save in the upper right corner. You’ll only be able to save your video — not the comments, likes, number of viewers or any live interactions. After saving, tap Done and your live video will be saved to your camera roll but will no longer be available in the app.
As previously hinted at, Windows phone users will have to wait to start saving their Instagram broadcasts. As usual, the update is hitting Android and iOS devices first. Fortunately, Instagram development has remained a vigilant steward of the Windows 10 platform and brought each of its recently announced features to the platform in due time.
