Instagram Stories can now automatically display song lyrics

Instagram has made it easier for users to add lyrics to their Story posts, the company revealed in a small announcement on Thursday. The new feature revolves around the service's music sticker, and has arrived just in time to compete with TikTok's own new text option. With this new feature, lyrics automatically appear when songs play on an Instagram Story post.

Instagram users already had the ability to add music to their Stories using the service's music sticker. However, only text could be entered over the Story, requiring the user to type out any particular lyrics they wanted to include with their image or video. That changes with the new lyrics feature.

To use it, Instagram tells users to add a music sticker to their Story content, then search for a song in the app's audio library. Assuming lyrics are available for the song the user selected, they'll have the option of adding them. Instagram enables users to adjust the lyrics design, edit which words appear in the Story, and change the font.

When one of the user's followers watches the Story content, the lyrics will automatically start to play with the song, enabling them to sing along to the audio. Tapping the lyrics presented in a Story takes the viewer to a portal with more info about the artist and the option to listen to a larger portion of the song.

The lyrics option is available to all users in regions where the music stickers are supported. The feature arrives alongside the newly launched text feature on TikTok, which now enables users to add their own text to content directly within the app.