Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Facebook 'Messenger Day' Is the Chat App's New Snapchat Stories Clone (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the good-artists-borrow-great-artists-steal dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Facebook is stealing the Stories format and invading countries where Snapchat isn't popular yet. Today in Poland it launched "Messenger Day," which lets people share illustrated filter-enhanced photos and videos that disappear in 24 hours, just like on Snapchat. Much of the feature works exactly like Snapchat Stories, with the ability to draw or add text to images. Facebook's one big innovation with Messenger Day is the use of graphic filters as suggestions for what to share, instead of just to celebrate holidays and events or to show off your location like with Snapchat's geofilters. At the top of the Messenger thread list, users see a row of tiles representing "My Day" and friends' Days they can watch, but there are also prompts like "I'm Feeling," "Who's Up For?" and "I'm Doing." Tapping on these tiles provides a range of filters "I'm feeling [...] so blue" with raindrops and a bubbly blue font, "I'm feeling [...] blessed" with a glorious gold sparkly font, "Who's up for [...] road trip" with a cute car zooming past, or "Who's up for [...] Let's grab drinks" with illustrated beer mugs and bottles that cover the screen. This feature allows people to share visually appealing images even if they aren't great artists or especially creative. These prompts could also spur usage when people are bored, sparking their imagination. Messenger is already an app people use all day with close friends, so it could end up a better home for the Stories format than cramming it into Facebook's core app, which the company tested as "Quick Updates" and scrapped.

5 of 13 comments (clear)

  1. Yawn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Film at 11:00

  2. Where is that "apps apping apps" guy? by somenickname · · Score: 1

    This summary title reads like an "apps apping apps" troll. I've read it several times now and it still just seems like random words. However, I'm hopeful that it means that we'll finally get those 17 razor blade shaving razors.

  3. Ads by dohzer · · Score: 2

    I quit Snapchat when they added ads.
    Surely the FB version will have them too.
    No interest.

  4. No way it gets traction by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    How many people want snapchat material anywhere neat Facebook material?

    Yeah, didn't think so...

    Maybe it will fill some new unique niche but it's certainly no Snapchat competitor.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  5. Poke by sixsixtysix · · Score: 1

    So they added their, presumably dead, Poke app's features to its Messenger app. Nothing to see. Move Along.

    --
    ...