While imitation probably isn’t the sincerest form of flattery among competing tech companies, Facebook’s new Snapchat-like app updates are an obvious hat tip to Snapchat’s years-old features.
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Facebook announced the new updates Tuesday morning: a camera filled with effects and filters, short visual "Stories" and disappearing messages.
"The way people create content is changing to be from text to photos and videos," Connor Hayes, product manager for Facebook stories, told The Verge. "This is in turn changing the way they're sharing with one another and interacting online ... something that Snapchat has really pioneered."
In 2013, Facebook tried and failed to strike a deal to buy Snapchat for $3 billion.
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And since then, it has cloned some of Snapchat's most popular features in an all-out effort to maintain dominance in the arena of photo and video communication.
While Snapchat has half the number of daily active users of Facebook-owned Instagram's 300 million audience, Facebook has noticed its "surging popularity" among younger users, CNN reported.
Here's more on the new Snapchat-like features rolling out Tuesday on iOS and Android:
Camera effects
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Similar to Snapchat’s camera filters feature, Facebook’s will pack dozens of effects (think glitter beards and sloth hats) and interactive features, including “reactive effects” such as falling snow.
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Stories
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Facebook replicated Snapchat's Stories format for Instagram in August and on Tuesday announced a similar release in its main mobile app.
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Users have options to share multiple media as a “visual collection” (or Story) to appear on top of Facebook’s news feed or on their timelines.
Similar to Snapchat and Instagram, the Stories will disappear in 24 hours.
Direct
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Users will also be able to share their visual compilations directly to an individual or group of Facebook users if they choose to — part of the app’s new “Direct” feature.
Like Snapchat, when you send a photo or video via Direct, your friends will be able to view it once, replay it or reply. After the conversation ends, the content is no longer visible.
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