How To Tell If You Have Instagram Stories Update

App updates arrive at the best times; just when you think you've exhausted all the features at your fingertips, your favorite tech toy takes on a whole new life. And today, we've got one from Instagram — specifically, a new new Instagram Stories Update. How to tell if you have this new update, however, requires a little bit of detective work on your part. But don't worry; I'm here to help. It's easy. I promise.

Introduced back in August 2016, Instagram Stories allows users to share a slideshow of videos and photos with your followers. When it first made its debut, social media users around the world compared the new function to Snapchat; both apps see the media you post automatically delete itself after a certain period of time (24 hours, in the case of Instagram Stories). But now, with this latest update, it's clear Instagram and Snapchat are starkly different in terms of user experience with this feature.

As of Nov. 10, Instagram Stories will now let you mention people using the @ feature; what's more, you'll also be able to use Boomerang in your Story directly from the Instagram app as well. Additionally, the ability to add links to Stories is being tested with some users.

So how can you tell if you have the new Instagram Stories update? Well, firstly, you'll want to make sure that you have the latest Instagram version on your phone. That's 9.7 on iOS; if you're an Android fan the version varies by device, but should be dated Nov. 9, 2016. So, you can check your phone manually to see if you've got the correct version of the app installed. Here's how to update Instagram if you haven't got the latest version yet.

Then, you can also check your Instagram for the features I mentioned above. If you can't find them, you probably don't have the update. If you can use Boomerang and @mention people in your Stories, however, then congrats — your Instagram is about to go next level. In the case of this particular update, the easiest way to check zeroes in on the Boomerang feature: From your feed, swipe right to create a Story. If you see both "Normal" and "Boomerang" as your camera options...

...Then you're good to go with the new update! Then, all that's left is to plot your next move to Instagram stardom with all these new features. Happy 'gramming!

Images: Giphy; Lucia Peters/Bustle