App for journalists: Flyr, for animated stories on Instagram, Snapchat and more

Credit: Screenshot from Flyr

What is it? An app for making animated stories with images, video and text, that can then be shared on Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook.

Cost: Free, with an upgrade to Pro available for $9.99 (£7.80)/ month

Devices: iOS (Android version in progress)

How is it of use to journalists?

News outlets have been using the 'stories' feature on Instagram and Snapchat to give their audiences a behind-the-scenes look at their newsrooms, to cover events, or to take the pulse around an issue.

Stories can also sometimes be tweaked and repurposed according to the strengths of the platform – while Snapchat is more recognised for its unfiltered content, Instagram is more well-known for its carefully crafted visuals.

Flyr enables journalists to create animated stories for these platforms, either from scratch or by tailoring its selection of pre-made templates.

How it works:

When you open the app, you will notice two menu tabs at the bottom, 'home' and 'inspiration'. The first one allows you to view your drafts, while the second contains Flyr's gallery of templates.

The free version will give you access to some 40 templates, divided into four categories: cards, events, marketing and Snap stories. Each template includes text, images and graphics, which you can tailor depending on your topic or your organisation's style.

However the options are fairly limited, so you can edit the text or choose a different background image, but if you want to change the colour of the font or access more than five animation styles, you will have to upgrade to Pro. The paid-for version gives you access to more images, videos, as well as advanced editing tools.

Users can also make a story from scratch: in the inspiration menu, tap the top-right '+' button to start. Give a title to your first card before adding text, a background and animation style.

Tap the text section of your card to make the 'more options' icon pop-up in the corner at the top, which provides the option to duplicate a layer, as well as apply the same style to your entire story. To add multiple cards to your story, tap the 'more options' icon in the top left-hand corner while in editing mode.

Once you are happy with the story, tap the export button in the top right-hand corner to save it. There are multiple options to choose from, including still image, 5-second video or a full, 9-second video. Here's our example, made with an existing template:

Testing Flyr, an app for making Instagram and Snapchat-style Stories pic.twitter.com/8tKYeoDys9

— Mădălina Ciobanu (@madalinacrc) August 24, 2017

For more on Instagram and Snapchat Stories, check out this article with tips from Sumaiya Omar on how the features can be used to curate and produce original journalism.

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