WhatsApp Introduces New Status Feature; Facebook Copies Snapchat Story Again?

Facebook is known to constantly test out new features with the app as well as its messaging subsidiary. It happened again but many claim the features are too similar to that of Snapchat's.

According to The Guardian, Facebook started testing a new feature in the app. This feature uses the app's built in camera to send pictures and videos to others directly from the camera interface. If this sound familiar then as many has pointed, Snapchat has a spec like this.

The similarity doesn't end there as the receiver can only view the message a couple of times and then it disappears permanently. That's another feature Snapchat is specially known for. Additionally, the camera also sports filters and edits like in Snapchat.

Facebook didn't stop at testing out features in its own app but it went for WhatsApp update next. WhatsApp's new Status feature now enables the users to share photos, GIFs or videos edited with drawings, emojis and a caption. Interesting this to be noted that selected friends will be able to see the results for 24 hours before it disappears.

"As a utility, we're focused on building features that will be used around the world by our 1.2 billion users," Forbes quoted a WhatsApp spokesperson. "Over time, we've seen a big uptick in users sharing rich content, such as photos, videos and GIFs on WhatsApp. We wanted to offer a simple, secure, and reliable way for people to share this type of content with all their contacts at once."

Many have claimed that the WhatsApp Status feature is again a copy of Snapchat's very popular Stories feature. Needless to say, Facebook has already used this idea in Instagram as well, naming it also "Stories".

The introduction of Stories-type feature in WhatsApp is a different matter than it was in Instagram. Simply because WhatsApp is not used like Instagram where people go and scroll through other people's content.