Even though Facebook did not succeed in buying Snapchat back in 2013, over the past year the social networking site has relentlessly mirrored Snapchat’s defining features for it’s own app. The most recent copy comes with the reveal of Messenger Day – “a way for you to share these photos and videos — as they happen — by adding to your Messenger Day, where many of your friends can view and reply to them.” So, it’s Snapchat Stories, then?
With Messenger Day, users can post stories in the form of pictures and videos to their Messenger app that, like Snapchat, will last for only 24 hours. After that, they’re automatically deleted and never to be seen again. Facebook stated that this move is part of their plan to make the camera a central aspect of the messaging app and is part of the company putting “video first across all apps and services.”
When users upload content, they can now manipulate pictures and videos by drawing them, adding text and including ‘special effects’ – “Choose from more than 5,000 frames, effects and stickers to customize photos and videos before you add to your Day, many of which are exclusive to Messenger,” Facebook said.
Facebook isn’t the only platform to have cloned this 24-hour story feature, however. In 2016, Instagram introduced Stories and only at the start of this month did Whatsapp change it’s status tool to allow users to add vanishing posts. Both of these platforms, however, are owned by Facebook too.
Is what we see here the outcome of Facebook’s no-nonsense approach to business, by buying out companies that they see as an upcoming potential threat? The company’s failure to buy Snapchat has meant that advertising revenue, users and industry credibility are all slowly decreasing for Facebook, particularly after Snapchat’s recent success in the Stock Market, which saw the company soaring in value to $28 billion.
