The competition between Facebook and Snapchat is growing more intense every day as both of the social media giants try to out-innovate each other and win over the masses. Recently, this innovation has looked more like imitation, with Facebook adding several features that are extremely similar to those on Snapchat.
The Stories feature is the most significant one that Facebook has modeled off of Snapchat. On both platforms, Stories allows users to share a compilation of photos and videos that will disappear after twenty-four hours. On Snapchat, Stories are housed on the Stories page, where they are visible to all of a user’s friends. On Facebook, Stories appear at the top of the News Feed, and can be shared with all of a user’s friends or just a select group. Many people are viewing this tweak as a positive change from Snapchat’s version, because it lets users determine who can see their Story.
Just like on Snapchat, Facebook users can apply lenses to pictures and videos that they include in their Stories. Snapchat was the first to popularize the concept of interactive lenses, and now Facebook is following the trend. Back in March 2016, Facebook acquired an app called Masquerade, which acts as a camera and photo-editor to transform pictures and videos with a variety of fun lenses. Facebook first integrated Masquerade’s technology into the Live video feature it launched last year, and the interactive lenses extended naturally to Stories as well.
Live video and disappearing content are major trends across Snapchat and Facebook right now, as well as Facebook-owned Instagram. The focus is definitely shifting from static sharing to more active and visual experiences, which means there will be even more opportunities to connect creatively over social media.
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