Facebook has introduced Snapchat like Stories in its smartphone apps for users in Ireland. The feature, available for iOS and Android, lets users create and upload stories for 24 hours using their Facebook app.
The layout of Facebook Stories resembles Instagram Stories and its functionality is similar to its Snapchat and Instagram counterparts.
Users in Ireland can upload their photos and videos to Facebook Stories by using iOS or Android apps. However, Stories will not show inside friend’s News Feeds or on profile timelines; the stories appear in an illuminated circle above the Facebook News Feed. Just like Instagram Stories, the illuminated circle indicates a new story or an addition to an existing one and users can view them by tapping on the circle. To make the Facebook Stories interactive, users can also edit their photos and videos by adding selfies or geofilters, similar to Snapchat. Users and their friends can comment on pictures or videos in Stories via direct messages.
Stories is Facebook’s latest attempt to incorporate Snapchat like functionality to another one of its apps. The company launched Instagram Stories in 2016. It goes without saying that over years Facebook has been trying to not only tap in to mobile sharing but also has been attempting to curb Snapchat’s popularity and usage. Since its advent, Instagram Stories has been quite successful in attracting approximately 150 million users daily but we are not sure how successful Instagram has been in reducing Snapchat’s usage and popularity. In the light of emerging and existing competition, Snapchat has recently released a major update to the app. The latest update to Snapchat has a new curved and sleek design and universal search functionality.
For now, we will just have to wait for the global release of Facebook Stories to judge its impact on 1.8 billion Facebook users and of course, on Snapchat. This depends on whether this feature sees the light of the day or is shut down after testing.
