Of Course Facebook Is Putting a Snapchat Clone Inside WhatsApp (mashable.com) 75
Karissa Bell, writing for Mashable: Facebook is about to start pushing its next Snapchat clone on a new set of 1 billion+ users. WhatsApp is now starting to roll out its own version of Stories with an update to its Status feature. Launching now in the Netherlands and France, the feature will eventually be live in all the countries where the messaging app is available. [...] The update, which coincides with the chat app's eighth birthday, makes WhatsApp the last of the major Facebook services to get the Snapchat treatment. (The company started with Instagram last year before adding Snapchat-like features to Messenger and the main Facebook app.) Journalist Casey Newton sums up the situation with this sarcastic tweet, "Honestly whatever you think of Evan Spiegel, it's impressive that he's taking Snap public while serving as Facebook's chief product officer."
Re: (Score:3)
Just like the internet was AOL once.
Re: (Score:1)
I don't have a FB account, and I am much happier than those that do.
(ok, technically everyone has a FB account - they have shadow accounts on you even if you don't open one yourself.)
Re: (Score:2)
+1 insightful (oh for Mod points) on " they have shadow accounts on you even if you don't open one yourself"
Re: (Score:1)
You are also much more stupid and ignorant, and ignorance is bliss. I don't think it's your lack of FB account that keeps you happy.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
is the new "I don't have a TV."
It's more like "I have an actual life I enjoy in the real world."
For the social media addicts out there, you don't have to tell me how pathetic your life is. We already know.
Re: (Score:1)
There is no bubble... real companies like Alibaba has done the same thing, and are making money hand over fist. Facebook and Snapchat make services that nobody else on the Internet ever can even come close to duplicating, and have broken new ground doing so.
This is just the start, folks. People laughed at BitCoin when it hit $300... and it is likely going to hit $10,000 and go from there by midyear. Same with tech companies.
But I can already send cat photos to my girlfriend (Score:5, Insightful)
For those of us over 30, what does "snapchat treatment" mean? You can already send photos and video and make phonecalls.
Re: (Score:2)
There are tons of apps that did this on iOS and Android. Of course, the app had a good chance of sending the pic to an upstream provider where the editing was done, but hey, people are happy to trade everything for "free" stuff.
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds like the novelty factor on that would wear off pretty fast
Re: (Score:2)
FB keeps attention by having new "stickers" be used and pulling older ones.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It means that, like facebook messenger, it'll go from an app which lets you select a contact to start/continue a conversation with, to an app where the contact list is interrupted with irrelevant lists of who's online now (who cares?) and people you might know (huh?), before finally changing and being always one wrong press away from launching the camera and letting you add retarded shit like rainbows and stickers to photos. You'd have to be either a moron or 13 years old to appreciate it. I stopped usi
Re: (Score:2)
There used to be an app for Android called TextSecure. It was close to an ideal for messaging as one could get, because it did end to end encryption, no ads, could store texts encrypted, and so on. Wish it were still around.
Re: (Score:1)
You can send me casual nudes (female, not too overweight), and I don't care what you do to your face.
Re: (Score:1)
For those of us over 30, what does "snapchat treatment" mean? You can already send photos and video and make phonecalls.
- I am quite a bit over 30 but let me try this, isn't 'snapchat treatment' similar to hit and run treatment?
Re: (Score:3)
Don't forget Meitu which has been insanely popular, and happily sends data overseas.
FB -- useful, because it is a core gathering point for people.
Snapchat? Useless.
WhatsApp? Useless. Photogene4 is far better, and is paid for.
I'm a dinosaur (Score:3)
My niece (13 yo) called me a dinosaur the other day.
"You're a dinosaur, you and my mom still have a Facebook account." I don't really know what to say. Do kids view Facebook as something for their parents so it doesn't matter what features are added they're not going to use any Facebook service? I have no clue because I don't "get" the appeal of Snapchat. The interface and functionality seems so disjointed. I was driving her and her friend when some boys in another car rolled down their windows and asked the girls for their Snapchat name. So many I'll buy some Snap stock when they IPO because all the kids are using it.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh goody. Maybe it's time for Uncle Dinosaur to show Mom & Dad just how much surveillance is going on and how much is bleeding through to other channels.
Re: (Score:2)
He's already Uncle Dinosaur. He doesn't need to elevate that to Uncle Tinfoil. If anything, Snapchat is far better than Facebook due to the ephemeral nature of the chats.
Re: (Score:2)
He's already Uncle Dinosaur. He doesn't need to elevate that to Uncle Tinfoil. If anything, Snapchat is far better than Facebook due to the ephemeral nature of the chats.
(Interviewer)"Oh, so you say you're very experienced with social media? Do you have any evidence of this?"
(Facebook Dinosaur)"Why yes, I do. I've established my company, started community groups, and initiated several marketing campaigns right here."
(Snapchat addict)"Uhhhhhhhh....."
Snapchat is super focused. (Score:2)
Snapchat has one of the better UI's around, really discoverable and quick, with great presentation of content (always full-screen).
Many attempts to graft Snapchat into other apps have been done but they are all doomed to failure because they will never be as focused as Snapchat is.
Re:Snapchat is super focused. (Score:5, Insightful)
"Snapchat has one of the better UI's around, really discoverable and quick,"
Every time I hear this "discoverable" thing I wonder, "Why the fuck should I have to 'discover' what the app does...shouldn't there be like, oh, I dunno, menus and shit that tell me? Why should I have to hunt through the *&%$# thing to figure out how to use it?"
But then I'm old and cranky, so who cares what I think, eh? I still expect apps and programs to have crazy shit like "menus" and labels" and "buttons" instead of hiding stuff behind hot spots and "magic corners" (I'm looking at you, Windows Fucking 10).
Re: (Score:2)
Every time I hear this "discoverable" thing I wonder, "Why the fuck should I have to 'discover' what the app does...shouldn't there be like, oh, I dunno, menus and shit that tell me?
There is a menu but it's rightfully way hidden because you don't need one 99.9999999999999999991% of the time. The rest you are either:
* Taking a photo/video
* Looking at photos/videos
* Chatting
* Adding new Snapchat friends.
Which are all simple and easy to use without any menus, while as I said maintaining full screen content.
I
Re: (Score:2)
Discoverability is an industry term that has apparently bled into pop culture.
Those old drop down menus and toolbars (which are the shit btw) represent the height of UI 'discoverability.' It's been all downhill since then.
I'd agree...menus that group things into reasonably logical choices and where each item has a keyboard shortcut is arguably the cleanest most functional interface hands down. Some of the more recent UI designs for certain apps are just fucking miserable, truly egregious.
The only logical conclusion I can draw from some of these wretched interfaces is that the designers hate users and want us all to die in a fire.
Re: (Score:2)
And even in their IPO it literally states that it " ..may never achieve or maintain profitability"
Yeah, that sounds like a GREAT place to get rid of all that extra money I have laying around...
Re: (Score:2)
Your niece has only been allowed to have a Facebook account for a year or less. She probably can't go to her friends' houses unescorted. Soon enough she, and her peers, will start using Facebook.
Enbrace, extend, extinguish (Score:2)