Insta users in the U.S. can now benefit from an AI-generated background for their Stories
The new feature is called Backdrop and uses AI to change the background of your stories. A few taps and prompts will help you get an entirely new background, which could be quite fun and useful, especially if you have some little annoying thing in the background you want to fix. Since its launch in 2016, Stories has been getting several useful updates, including AI stickers and an aesthetic overhaul for reports. The new feature is even more creative, and will gradually roll out to other regions other than the U.S.
Basically, once you’ve captured or uploaded content for your Story, Backdrop will show up. It is highlighted by an icon on the top of your screen. When you tap on it, it shows a grid of squares stretching across the screen, quite similar to photo editors. Then, you get a box for you to describe what you want.
All in all, you can prompt the AI with whatever you want, like “surrounded by puppies” or “surrounded by stars in a dreamy sky”. Of course, it may not be the ideal one you want, but it will still be quite fun to play around with.
Don’t worry about lying to your followers though – Instagram will show others you edited using AI – it will be tagged with AI-Backdrop. The platform also adds a sticker encouraging others to try it and also shows your description in quotation marks.
Snapchat also got a similar tool recently, although it’s reserved for Snapchat+ subscribers.
