Instagram brings Stories to the mobile web

Instagram is bringing one of its most popular features, the Snapchat clone Stories, to web browsers on your phone. Now people can watch Stories on a handset outside the Instagram app by heading to Instagram.com.

Stories are strings of photos and videos that disappear 24 hours after you've posted them on the Facebook-owned photo app. Instagram copied the concept -- right down to the name -- from its rival Snapchat.

Instagram's Stories feature has more than 250 million users a day. That's more than the number of people who use all of Snapchat. Facebook likes the Stories format so much, it's added the feature to all its major apps: its chat apps Messenger and WhatsApp, and the main Facebook app itself.

The addition of outside-the-app mobile web access for Stories could be a boon to Instagram users in emerging markets, where the mobile web is more popular.

For the web version, you'll be able to browse through the posts by tapping on arrow buttons. In addition to the ability to watch Stories, people will be able to post Stories directly from the mobile web in "coming months," Instagram said.