Instagram Is Shameless At Cloning Snapchat Face Filters, Facebook’s Scorched Earth Policy

When Instagram decided to copy Snapchat’s Stories feature, the photo-sharing app opted to at least admit that it’s a direct cloning strategy of its more youth-centric rival. Now, the Facebook-owned brand is offering a Face Filters clone while openly admitting that it was meant to compete with the original. What’s really interesting about this development is that Facebook is no longer hiding its Scorched Earth policy and is clearly out to destroy Snapchat.

It would seem that the frustrations of having a smaller company beating it in a highly-contested market have gotten Mark Zuckerberg all riled up. When Instagram made the announcement of its new service, Instagram VP of Product Kevin Weil admitted in an interview that at this point, Facebook is already in an all-out war with Snapchat, PC Mag reports.

"If we're being honest with ourselves, this is the way the tech industry and frankly all industries work. Good ideas start out in one place and spread all across the industry," Weil who was becoming visibly uncomfortable with the questions explained. "Kudos to Snapchat for being the first to stories, but it's a format and it's going to be adopted across a wide array of platforms."

So, how exactly does Instagram’s Face Filter stack up against Snapchat’s? According to Gizmodo, not very well.

One of the biggest reasons for the popularity of Snap Inc.’s offering is how it makes users look cute, cool, mysterious, or downright silly depending on which Filter they used. Instagram’s attempt at doing the same thing fails because of how it focuses on all the wrong things.

What Facebook’s sister platform created can often feel cheap and gimmicky, and capitalizing on its rival’s popularity more than anything else. The misconception that “Snapchat’s Face Filters are cool, so Instagram’s cloned service should also be cool too” seems to be the basis for the limited number of Filters available right now.

Snapchat actually tries to serve its audience and knows what they want. Instagram is like a parent putting on 90s hip-hop clothing and trying to rap.