Facebook's Instagram announced today that over 200 million people now use its Instagram Stories feature every day, up from 150 million announced in January.
Today's milestone catapults Instagram past the originator of the 'Stories' format — Snapchat, which reported 161 million daily active users ahead of its parent company Snap's IPO last month. It shows just how successfully Facebook can copy and scale an appealing format.
Snap shares fell nearly 1.5 percent mid-day Thursday, but ended the day nearly flat, around $20 a share.
It also shows remarkable growth, as the feature just launched on August 2 of last year, and hit 150 million daily users in January, amounting to a third of Instagram's total 600 million users.
Along with this announcement, Facebook is introducing new 'sticker' tools for Instagram, to make it a more appealing alternative to Snapchat, and more engaging for its users. Now Instagram's users can turn their selfies into stickers, which they'll be able to easily share, or pin within a video.
The app is also launching new Geostickers for Chicago, London, Madrid and Tokyo to apply over photos. The stickers have been designed by artists from the respective cities, enabling users to tap to learn more about the art.
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Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal is an investor in Snap.