Instagram reveals engagement stats that rival Snap

It's been a long time since Instagram last revealed how much time users spend in the app per day, but on the one-year anniversary of Instagram stories, the company is finally releasing numbers that rival its greatest competitor: Snapchat.

• Users under the age of 25 spend more than 32 minutes a day on Instagram, on average
• Users age 25+ spend more than 24 minutes a day, on average
• Why it matters: For months, Snapchat has touted high engagement stats — the average user spends 30 minutes on its app per day, up from 25 minutes in January — but Instagram wouldn't reveal updated time-spent metrics.

Now we know that Instagram users are using the app at roughly the same rate as Snapchat users, with younger users driving the time spent engagement numbers up. Instagram says the release of Stories has helped increase the amount of time people spend on Instagram.

Sound smart: The fact that we measure time spent on a certain media properly daily is nuts, but it's the future. In a smartphone-dominated world where any media company can reach almost anyone at anyone time, the battle has shifted from how many people can you reach to how much time out of a person's day can you capture.

Instagram continues to be a platform for businesses:

• In the last month, over 50% of businesses on Instagram produced an Instagram Story
• One in five organic stories from businesses gets a direct message

The top locations, hashtags, and face filters used in Instagram Stories, via Instagram:

Top location tags:

1. Jakarta, Indonesia
2. São Paulo, Brazil
3. New York, NY
4. London, UK
5. Madrid, Spain

Top hashtags:

1. #GOODMORNING
2. #WORK
3. #GOODNIGHT
4. #MOOD
5. #HAPPYBIRTHDAY
6. #TBT
7. #LOVE
8. #HOME
9. #BOMDIA (means hello or good day in portuguese)
10. #RELAX

Most popular face filters:

1. Puppy ears
2. Sleep mask
3. Bunny ears
4. Love with the heart-shaped darts)
5. Koala ears