Facebook has relentlessly been copying some of Snapchat’s core features across several of its products. Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp have all cloned Snapchat’s popular Stories feature and now it’s the social network’s turn. Facebook proper has now released a new feature in its mobile apps today which enables users to send messages and content that disappears automatically after some time. That’s precisely what Stories does on Snapchat.
It hasn’t even bothered to choose a different name. Facebook Stories has been officially announced today. It allows users to share multiple photos and videos as part of a visual collection on top of their News Feed.
All of their friends will be able to view photos and videos in their story for 24 hours. The stories won’t appear on their timeline or News Feed unless users post them there too.
Adding a story is easy, all users need to do is tap on the “Your Story” icon that’s located in the new Stories bar at the top of the News Feed.
The Facebook app for iOS and Android also has a new feature called Direct which lets users share photos and videos with specific friends for a limited time.
The recipient who gets a photo or video via Direct will be able to view it once and replay it or write a reply. Once the conversation on the content ends it’s no longer visible. That’s basically how Snapchat does it.
The new features are now being rolled out for Facebook on both iOS and Android globally starting today.
Filed in . Read more about Facebook and Snapchat. Source: newsroom.fb