Oh Snap! Did Facebook Just Copy A Snapchat Feature Again?

Guess what? Facebook cloned another Snapchat feature, this time in Messenger. It’s called Messenger Day and it’s just like Snapchat Stories. Or should we say Instagram Stories? Or maybe, WhatsApp Status? Gosh, Mark, we cringed over here.

The Messenger Day feature is only available in the Messenger App. Both, creating and viewing. A new row of thumbnails at the top of the Messenger app will show the latest posts from your friends. You can post images or videos and they will be available to watch for 24 hours before disappearing. Users can interact with your content with different reactions, which include everything from emojis to a Wow button.

To add a photo or video, tap the Add to Your Day option in the top-left corner. On the next screen, you shoot or upload from your library. You can also create an all text image. If you want to share your content to your day, tap the circle to the right of My Day. To choose your audience, tap the gear icon to the left of where you selected My Day. Here, you can choose to show your day only to a pre-saved group of individuals or show it to everyone except specific users. Like posts. To view, tap on your day from the Messenger home screen. While viewing your day, you can delete or forward it. Facebook lets you see not only how many users viewed it, but which users viewed it. To see the full list of viewers, tap the gray circle icon with the white number at the bottom of your day.

Day has one special feature that Snapchat doesn’t: Active Now. You’ll see a green dot on the friends who are currently available to chat with on the app. The idea is to make people ask to join what their friends are doing.

Facebook vs Snapchat

Snapchat is one of the hottest social apps today with people constantly uploading stories to their feed. More precisely, 158 million people everyday. The limited time is his biggest thing. But one of its attractive points is the ability to overlay your pictures with stickers.  Mark and his team are determined to out-snap Snapchat, since they couldn’t buy it like they did with WhatsApp and Instagram. So, back in December Facebook added a new camera interface- similar to Snapchat- where you could put digital effects over the pictures. Last month Status was included to WhatsApp and now Messenger Day is being launched in some countries. Facebook is not afraid to copy, no matter what critics say. All that matters is whether it’s valuable to users. Besides, Messenger Day also opens up a potential way to make a few more bucks since chat bots in are not going well. Snapchat, your move.

The fight is on. Who’s gonna win?