The big news from today's Instagram Stories update is the launch of Poll Stickers, an interactive way to get your friends' opinions on everything from the dress you're buying to what movie you should stream. However, Instagram Stories is also releasing two, less publicized features today that will please perfectionists and make anyone who likes to color match very happy.
The first of these new features is an alignment tool. Now, when you add text or a sticker to a Story post, you'll see guiding blue lines automatically appear onscreen to help you center the sticker and keep it in the frame. They also appear along the edges of the screen, showing you where text or stickers might get covered up or be out of bounds when someone watches your Story. For example, you don't want to place text too far down on screen, otherwise it will be eclipsed by the message bar (which will pop up if you try to drag your sticker there). You aren't required to follow the blue lines — they're just there if you want to use them.
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The tool also works when you're trying to straighten out text or stickers that you rotated, but want to return to their original alignment. An orange dotted line will appear when you've correctly straightened the item. Sadly for Android users, the alignment tool is only appearing on iOS for now.
The other, arguably more exciting creative update, is a new color picker that lets you match the color you draw or type with to a hue in your image. Take your photo or video, then tap anywhere onscreen to write something or select the drawing icon on the upper toolbar. Along the bottom of the screen, to the left of the spectrum of colors you're used to seeing, you'll see a new eyedropper icon. Select that, and a shape that looks like a water droplet will appear on your image. Move the droplet around to select a color in the photo that you want to apply to your paintbrush or text. Then, work your matchy-matchy magic.
There are possibilities: You can paint your hair to color match your shirt or type in the cheesy hue of your pizza slice. The options are endlessly playful and a much-needed update to the limited color offerings previously available. The color picker rolls out to both iOS and Android today.