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For a while now, Facebook has been trying to steal Snapchat’s thunder by basically copying what it thinks makes the popular teen app such a hit. As a result, it has been copying Snapchat Stories for Instagram with considerable success. Now, Facebook is doing the same with WhatsApp because the popular messaging service is now getting the same Snapchat Stories copycat treatment.
Snapchat’s Stories feature is just one of many reasons why the app is so popular among the younger crowds. For one thing, it’s not as saturated with negative political views as other platforms like Facebook or Twitter. This didn’t stop WhatsApp from adopting the concept, however, which just launched the feature called Status. Now, instead of simply typing their status, users can add whacky images to messages, Recode reports.
On that note, it’s not as if WhatsApp’s take on the popular trend doesn’t come with some unique twists. For one thing, the communication carries the platform’s famed end-to-end encryption, which means that no matter what the users send to each other, they will be deleted within 24 hours permanently. There’s also the fact that the users can send the images in GIF form, which isn’t available on Snapchat’s own Stories feature as of yet.
The new feature also has the potential for changing what WhatsApp is meant to be, Forbes reports. In the past, the platform functioned much like Facebook Messenger, in that users can chat, call, or have a group conversation with it. This made it much more utilitarian than a service like Facebook, Twitter, or even Instagram, where users linger for hours on end, scrolling through posts.
By introducing Status, WhatsApp is potentially changing the dynamic within its own ecosystem. More than that, it’s also possible that it just opened the floodgates for businesses to enter the picture, thus earning Facebook that payday from WhatsApp it always wanted.
