Instagram's New Stories Are a Near-Perfect Copy of Snapchat Stories

There's no other way to put it. Facebook has been getting "too inspired" from everything Snapchat does and it continues to quickly replicate the features on to its own services. The latest example of this can be seen on Instagram, the photo-sharing app Facebook owns, which on Tuesday introduced Instagram Stories. Instagram Stories aims to let people share photos and videos that have a life span of no more than 24 hours with friends and people who follow them. It bears a striking resemblance to Snapchat Stories, a photo-sharing format where stories disappear after no more than 24 hours. The Verge adds: It's not the first time that Instagram or its parent company has taken a page from Snapchat's product roadmap. In 2012 Facebook released Poke, an app for sending messages that disappeared after 10 seconds. It never gained much traction, and was shuttered in 2014. Later that year Facebook released Slingshot, which required you to send a friend a photo of your own before you could see the photo they had sent you. It fizzled, too. In 2014 Instagram released Bolt, its own ephemeral messenger, which tried to build intimacy by limiting your network to 20 friends. But users stayed away, and Instagram later pulled Bolt from the App Store.

Too much cash

[110010001000]

This is what happens when you have too much cash and too few ideas. What a waste. Although I guess it does keep people employed doing useless things.

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[JustAnotherOldGuy]

This is what happens when you have too much cash and too few ideas.

Bingo.

They're on a desperate quest to find new shit to add to their overloaded platform, and they've been reduced to copying the look and feel of their competitor's interfaces. All that money and no clue as to what to do with it.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't be so bad but Nokia did this with their Ovi platform years and years ago....everything old is new again...sorry, INNOVATION!!!

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[shaitand]

They are both exploiting human flaws. In both cases a messager where the messages disappear after a few seconds fails because it only has one practical application. Good luck explaining to your significant other why you have that app.

Unbelievable

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

I just can't believe that Facebook would copy something from another company in hopes of increasing their market share.

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[allo]

The strange thing: They did not buy snapchat.

That's nothing!

[mandark1967]

I see Slashdot stories that are near perfect copies of other Slashdot stories. Ya can't explain that! Checkmate Atheists!

In the words of

[ArchieBunker]

Peter Griffin: Oh my god, who the hell cares.

Stifling

[GrahamJ]

I think having an 800 pound gorilla looming over the Internet, waiting to rip off companies with good ideas can have a stifling effect on innovation. Shame on them, come up with your own damn ideas.

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[Anonymous Coward]

In this case the 800 pound gorilla (Facebook) stole from a 400 pound gorilla (Snapchat)