New Instagram feature lets you add music to stories

Instagram is cracking down on third-party apps by limiting their access to users' data. (Reuters)

Instagram stories are about to get a lot more musical.

The Facebook-owned social media app just launched a new feature as part of Instagram version 51 that lets you easily add a soundtrack to your story.

"Instagram Stories is now used by 400 million every day, and we're excited to give our community new ways to feel closer to their friends and followers," Instagram wrote in a blog post.

To try it out, start creating a story like usual, then press the smiley face button at the top of the screen (the same one you'd tap to add a sticker). From there, you should see a new music icon; tap that to "open a library of thousands of songs" from which you can choose.

"You can search for a specific song, browse by mood, genre or what's popular and tap the play button to hear a preview," Instagram wrote. "When you've selected your song, you can fast-forward and rewind through the track to choose the exact part that fits your story."

When your friends and followers view your story, they'll hear the track playing in the background and see a sticker showing the song title and artist name.

On iOS, Instagram is also adding a new "Music" option under the record button (next to Boomerang, Superzoom, etc) that will let you select a song before capturing a video. With this option you can "search for a song, select the exact part you want, and record a video as the song plays in the background," Instagram wrote. The company plans to expand this feature to Android at some point "soon."

Meanwhile, Facebook recently introduced a feature called Lip Sync Live that "lets you lip sync to songs from forever favorites ...to new hits" during live broadcasts.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.