Facebook is rolling out ephemeral stories and messaging in its mobile apps today, bringing the popular augmented reality camera feature to the masses.
The move is part of an all-out effort to mimic the momentum of Snapchat, which invented the stories format in 2013.
The update rolling out globally this morning on iOS and Android has three parts: a redesigned in-app camera, a new feed of ephemeral stories at the top of the News Feed, and a private messaging feature called Direct. Taken together, the features represent the biggest changes to Facebook’s core product in recent memory.
While the Snapchat generation sees the ability to apparently add a puppy’s features to your selfies as an everyday activity, for much of the wider population outside of Snapchat’s key teen demographic the Facebook changes will be an introduction to the world of augmented reality.
The announcement today move augmented reality more into the mainstream, with Apple tipped to include AR features in the tenth anniversary iPhone expected to be released in September.
Today's news follows Instagram's mission to copy Snapchat's popular features. Last August Instagram launched essentially a direct copy of Snapchat stories, leading to backlash from the company's employees.
Unfortunately for Snapchat, Facebook has a huge advantage in this game with more advanced advertising options and a mich bigger user base.
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