Back in 2013 when Facebook offered to acquire Snapchat for $3 billion USD, it seemed to many a misguided act of hubris from founder Evan Spiegel to turn the offer down.
Critics assumed Snapchat was a flash in the pan and would soon go bankrupt. Three years on, Snapchat is still going strong with the 10 billion “Stories” viewed per day and a $16 billion USD valuation as of its last raise this March.
Meanwhile Facebook, the company that long saw Snapchat’s potential, now appears to be testing a feature that mimics arguably the most crucial element to Snapchat’s success. The new function appears in screenshots posted to Twitter, showing options for users to set their messages to delete after one minute, 15 minutes, an hour, four hours or a day.
https://twitter.com/iOSAppChanges/status/726803477922504704
This comes a mere week after the Wall Street Journal‘s Deepa Seetharaman reported that Facebook was planning to launch a stand-alone camera app that opens directly on the camera allowing users to quickly live stream video.
There have also been recent rumours that Facebook will allow users to turn on end-to-end encryption for select conversations.
With all these features echoing aspects of Snapchat, it appears that Facebook is now determined to beat the more youthful app at its own game.
Related reading: Facebook may be launching a stand-alone camera app to rival Snapchat
[source]Twitter via iOSAppChanges[/source]
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