Instagram Stories now has 200mn daily active users, which is more than Snapchat

Shares of Snapchat-owner Snap fell 1.2 percent on Thursday after rival Instagram, owned by Facebook, said more than 200 million people a day use its Stories feature, which competes against Snapchat.

Snapchat had 161 million daily active users at the end of last year, ahead of Snap’s March initial public offer, which was the largest by a technology firm in three years despite decelerating user growth.

Instagram Stories’ daily active users announced on Thursday amount to an increase of 33 percent from the 150 million daily active users it had in January.

The Instagram feature, which launched last year, lets users and businesses post a string of photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours, similar to Snapchat.

Facebook last month introduced an update to allow users to tweak photos on their smartphones with visual details like a rainbow or a beard of glitter, also similar to Snapchat.

Snap surged in its public listing but has struggled since then.

The stock on Thursday fell 23 cents to trade at $19.99 (roughly Rs. 1,300). It is down 26 percent from a record high close on March 3, but remains up 17 percent from its $17 per share IPO price.

The company on May 10 will announce its quarterly results for the first time as a publicly listed company and is expected on average to have lost $193 million (roughly Rs. 1,244 crores), according to Thomson Reuters data. Snap has warned it may never become profitable.

Reuters

Publish date: April 14, 2017 12:46 pm| Modified date: April 14, 2017 12:46 pm

Facebook is building a better Snapchat than Snapchat, and that’s very disturbing

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Facebook is big. With almost 2 billion users, it’s the largest social media platform in the world. Each of its social media properties are also massive in their own right. Instagram boasts of 600 million active users, Messenger just crossed the 1.2 billion mark and WhatsApp has more than 1 billion users.

By any measure, Facebook is the largest, most successful social media company on the planet. That still doesn’t stop Facebook from copying its competitors when it runs out of ideas, however. In fact, this might very well be the secret to Facebook’s continuing success.

Take Snapchat for instance; an app for sharing ephemeral images and photos caught the attention of the younger audience that Facebook wanted but couldn’t net. Facebook’s solution to the problem? Outright plagiarism. The social media giant has been copying Snapchat’s features with utter disregard for any sense of propriety, and it’s been doing this very successfully for years.

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Snapchat Stories is a feature that allowed users to share chains of content that can be viewed in a 24-hour period. This was introduced in 2014 and proved to be the most popular feature on Snapchat, some might even call it a defining feature today.

Facebook blatantly copied Stories and implemented it across almost all its properties, including Messenger and Instagram. Better yet, we’ve now learnt that Instagram Stories on Instagram is actually more popular than Snapchat Stories on Snapchat. With 200 million daily active users on Instagram Stories, Snapchat in comparison manages about 160 million daily active users.

Taking things a step further, Facebook has introduced a number of tools to improve Stories. This includes selfie stickers, pinned stickers, video Stories, more geo-stickers, etc.

This is all well and good, and I’m not debating the morality or business ethics of the issue, but I do wonder if Facebook has a real plan. It’s easy to copy something that’s already proven to be successful, especially if you have the means to improve upon it; the iPhone and its innumerable Chinese clones is testament to that.

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However, while Facebook not only copied the feature, it also tried to implement it everywhere without regard for the audience the feature is targeting. What’s the point of having Stories on Facebook, Instagram as well as Messenger? Doesn’t Facebook know where it’ll work best?

Facebook is behaving like a chef has this great new sauce that he wants everyone to try, but he doesn’t know which dish it’ll go with. Rather than making the effort to figure it out, he adds the sauce in everything and hopes to sort it out later based on feedback.

That’s not an indication of a chef who knows his trade, is it? Taking this analogy a step further: If the best restaurant in the world thrives on stolen recipes, what happens when there are no more recipes to steal?

One does have to feel sorry for Snapchat. While Snapchat is busy innovating, Zuckerberg is busy peddling his manifesto on building global communities and working on newer advertising techniques. And when Facebook just casually steals all of Snapchat’s hard work, what can Snapchat do but grit its teeth and move on?

More importantly, once Snapchat dies, who will Facebook rip-off next?

Publish date: April 14, 2017 11:42 am| Modified date: April 14, 2017 12:46 pm

Snapchat introduces ‘Search’ option to lets users search content they’ve posted on the app

A woman wears Snapchat Spectacles on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Image: Reuters/Brendan McDermid.

Few days after Facebook got a Snapchat-like “Stories” update that lets users add effects to their photos and videos, Snap Inc has introduced a “Search” option that would give users power to search through the content they posted on its app.

Snapchat will enable users to search for photos and videos known as “Snaps” posted to the “Our Story” option on the app, by creating new “Stories” using machine learning technology, the company said in a blog post on Friday.

For instance, users can use the search feature to find “Snaps” related to events such as local basketball games and topics such as puppies.

The search feature, which was rolled out in some cities on Friday, is an addition to curated “Stories,” where public “Snaps” about major events like Wimbledon or the Coachella music festival already appear.

First introduced by Snapchat, “Our Story” feature is a slideshow of user content that disappears after 24 hours.

Earlier this week, social media giant Facebook gave its users access to the new Facebook Camera feature in its app that lets them add effects to their photos and videos.

Facebook-owned Instagram and WhatsApp already got “Stories” update before Facebook rolled it out to its users.

After this update, the Facebook users could now share their content to a Snapchat clone called ‘Facebook Stories’ that appears above News Feed on mobile and works similar to Instagram’s 24-hour slideshows.

Publish date: April 2, 2017 10:41 am| Modified date: April 2, 2017 10:41 am

Facebook Messenger is the latest app from the social network giant to ape Snapchat features

By tech2 News Staff /  10 Mar 2017 , 14:04

If you thought Facebook was done copying Snapchat features, think again. Today the company announced ‘Messenger Day’, which brings basic Snapchat story functionality to the Facebook Messenger. The company has copied a number features and brought them to Instagram and WhatsApp, and now the Messenger app from the social network gets the feature where a user can post photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours.

The announcement of the new feature comes just a day after Facebook added geostickers to Instagram where users can add stickers and illustrations into a story which is relevant to that particular location.

Here is how you can use the new Stories feature on Facebook Messenger:

You need to first make sure your Messenger app is updated to the latest version

Open Messenger, and tap on the camera ring at the bottom. This opens up a full-screen camera where you can take a picture. This can also be done by tapping the “Add to your day” button at the top of your inbox.

Take a quick photo or video

You can add effects and graphics by tapping the smiley face icon. You can also add text over your images by tapping the “Aa” icon, or even scribble by tapping the squiggly line in the top right corner.

Once you are done with editing, you just need to tap the arrow in the bottom right corner. This can be added directly to your day, saved to your phone or can be sent to a specific person or group of people.

With the feature launch, Facebook now has three apps that try to ape Snapchat, making it clear that it wants to bring it down by any way possible. This also brings in a lot of confusion to smartphone users who like posting ‘Stories’ everyday as now they now have multiple platforms to post.

Snapchat might be working on a 360-degree camera equipped Android phone: Report

Image Credits: Reuters

By IANS /  18 Feb 2017 , 12:43

Photo-sharing mobile service Snapchat is reportedly planning to launch an Android smartphone that will give consumers more control over the camera features.

“A California-based marketing firm has unveiled a concept handset equip with a 360-degree camera, buttons that let users scroll through filters and a one touch capture function for easy sharing,” Daily Mail reported.

The device might also inlcude a lock screen that allows users to easily swipe for Snapchat notifications and updates, messaging, and syncing with Spectacles. It may also pack Discover screen that combines GPS and maps, Snapchat Stories, and advertisements.

Earlier this year, Snap Inc., parent company Snapchat, has made its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO) filing public, seeking to raise up to $3 billion.

Snapchat aims to derive most of its revenue from advertising where it will compete against Google, Facebook and Twitter.

Snap Inc. has recently rolled out major changes in its app that will make it easier to navigate the app with a universal search bar that’s always accessible at the top of the app.

Snapchat is also introducing “Our Story” — a new global live story that any user can contribute to at any time.

WhatsApp hires Facebook executive Matt Idema as its first COO

Image: AFP

By tech2 News Staff /  16 Feb 2017 , 15:51

WhatsApp has hired Matt Idema, a Facebook executive who was leading product marketing for all the business products made by Facebook worldwide. This hire is suspected to lead WhatsApp into a completely different and contrasting direction than the current scenario. Facebook acquired the company in 2014 for $22 billion. The interesting part of the acquisition is the fact that WhatsApp does not make any money for Facebook. The company also decided to eliminate the subscription fee that WhatsApp charged the users after one year of free usage.

There are hints that the company is thinking about a mechanism to make money out of the massive userbase that WhatsApp commands all over the world. The decision of hire Idema hints towards a push in direction of monetization as reported by Recode. Even though his role has not yet been chalked out inside WhatsApp and it may not be the same as that of product marketing while working with Facebook. But it may very well fit in if rumours are true about WhatsApp working on adding ‘Business profile’ to the platform which will make it easier for businesses to operate and reach consumers beyond emails, calls and SMS.

This surely is a different way from the revenue stream that can be secured from straight up subscription fees, paid app models or advertisements that other companies and developers opt for. But developing a business side of the app and charging money will be a great way which won’t affect normal users. Another important thing to note is the fact that the company won’t really channel all the third-party messages or spam to you but in fact aims at making the addition more useful.

WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum had previously added, “Starting this year, we will test tools that allow you to use WhatsApp to communicate with businesses and organisations that you want to hear from. That could mean communicating with your bank about whether a recent transaction was fraudulent, or with an airline about a delayed flight. We all get these messages elsewhere today — through text messages and phone calls — so we want to test new tools to make this easier to do on WhatsApp, while still giving you an experience without third-party ads and spam.”

One important thing to note is that WhatsApp is heading in almost the same direction as that of Facebook Messenger with hints of impending ‘Bots’ and businesses and brands. The attempts at monetizing platforms are going in the same direction as that of adding Snapchat like features in all its platforms ranging from Instagram to Facebook Messenger and now WhatsApp.

Instagram now has 600mn users; last six months saw 100mn new users

By tech2 News Staff /  16 Dec 2016 , 11:29

Popular photography focussed social media network Instagram has just announced that it has reached 600 million users. Of this number, around 100 million users were added just in the last six months.

Thanking its users on its blog, Instagram release said, “You now have more ways to share than ever before with Instagram Stories, live video and disappearing photos and videos in Direct. Additionally, with updated safety tools that give you more control over comments and other parts of your experience, we’re working to make Instagram safer than ever for connection and self-expression.”

This number is also double that of its user base in 2014. Instagram which was bought by Facebook back in 2012 for $1bn, which was a huge amount of money at the time, has been seeing exceptional growth as compared to other social media networks. Its numbers are more than double that of Twitter, almost three times that of Snapchat. In Facebook’s bouquet of properties, Instagram is still behind Messenger, Facebook and WhatsApp.

Earlier this year, in May, Instagram completely redesigned its logo and added a black and white theme to the app. Since then, we have been seeing a lot of updates being added to Instagram, a lot of the more recent ones just lifted from Snapchat.

It has added features such as Live Videos and messages, which also disappear – just like Snapchat. Instagram Stories was another feature that was added on earlier this year – again, something that Snapchat has been doing for quite a while now. It has added Saved Posts as well. People clearly seem to be loving these features.

Facebook working on Snapchat-like Discover feature

Facebook Snapchat 

03 Dec 2016 , 15:38


In yet another attempt to take on photo sharing mobile service Snapchat, Facebook is working on a new feature which will showcase lists of curated content from publishers directly in the News Feed.

“The feature called ‘Collections’ functions similarly to Snapchat’s Discover section, showcasing news stories, videos and the company is reportedly asking publishers to create more content,” technology website mashable.com reported on Saturday.

Social networks have become a popular source of news for many, trailing only TV as a top source of information.
The move for the new publisher programme comes at a time when Facebook is trying to struggle between high-quality content from established media and fake news stories that go viral across the social network.

Earlier this year, Facebook has joined a network of more than 30 international media companies and organisations in an effort to filter out fake news stories and to improve the quality of information found online.

Seen everyday by more than 150 million users, Snapchat’s Discover feature lets users stumble upon channels from top publishers who curate content daily, watch ‘Live Stories’ from an event.

“Facebook, which has 1.8 billion users has told early ‘Collections’ partners that the content they create will be inserted directly into the News Feed, effectively giving them direct and potentially much broader access to the social network’s vast audience,” the report added.

IANS

Yet another Snapchat feature lift? Instagram to notify your friend when you screenshot their DM

  26 Nov 2016 , 12:57

With the roll-out of a new update, Facebook-owned photo sharing app Instagram will now notify your friends when you take a screenshot of their Direct Messages (DM) — just like its rival Snapchat, a media report said.

However, the notifications are only for the new disappearing message feature, Mashable reported.

To use the new feature, a user can swipe right into the camera to take a photo or video, then tap the arrow to send it privately.

A user can choose a group or create one in just a few taps – and can also send to individual friends at the same time.

According to Instagram’s statement, “Unlike other messages in Direct, these photos and videos disappear from your friends’ inboxes after they have seen them. And you will see if they replayed it or took a screenshot.”

Also, you can take a screenshot of your feed and Instagram will pop a new window down saying, “You can share this post with your friends” — offering a user a few ways to officially share the image if you tap the button.

IANS

WhatsApp announced staged rollout of Video Calling feature for everyone in coming weeks

By tech2 News Staff /  15 Nov 2016 , 13:38

WhatsApp will start the roll-out of ‘Video Calling’ in coming weeks in stages. The company was working on the video calling featured behind in closed beta test since last 4-5 months. It launched the features as a hidden feature for Android Beta users last month and we tried the quality and reliability of the feature as soon as it was rolled out. This rollout will be for everyone across Android, iPhone and Windows Phone devices.

WhatsApp video calling

The company detailed that the feature has been frequently requested by users all across the world. This comes as a natural step in the feature evolution for WhatsApp after the introduction to Group Chats, Voice calling and most recently the launch of web and Windows client for users. WhatsApp users can converse with each other using the feature without having to go to any other VoIP platform like Skype or Viber.

Mr. Neeraj Arora, Head of Business, WhatsApp and Mr. Manpreet Singh
Image Credit: WhatsApp

“Video calling is one of the most requested features from people in India. We’re proud to have the opportunity to launch this feature in India, where we now have 160 million users, and we look forward to seeing people use WhatsApp to talk to their friends and loved ones face to face,” added Jan Koum, CEO and Co-Founder for WhatsApp. The company is working on additional features like ‘Two-Step Verification‘, GIF search inside the app and a new Snapchat ‘Snaps’ like ‘Status’ feature that will allow users to share distructable images or videos to the contact list or individual WhatsApp contacts.

Snapchat update adds direct messaging and ambient augmented reality overlays

By Aditya Madanapalle /  09 Nov 2016 , 15:13

The latest Snapchat update adds new features for augmented reality overlays in any scene, not tracked to the face. The feature is called World Lenses, and works best with the main camera, and not the selfie shooter. There is a snow effect, a sparkling environment where clouds vomit rainbows, yellow butterflies and a fountain of exploding hearts. The butterflies and hearts move in the vertical orientation no matter how the phone is held, so these Lenses do not work well in the landscape mode.

Some of the Lenses require users to look all around to find some objects. The clouds that vomit rainbows can only be seen if you turn your camera upward. Once the cloud starts vomiting a rainbow and its eyes cycle through colours, users can follow the rainbow downwards to find it ending in a white splash. If you look around in the snow environment, you will find a walrus levitating above the word Chillin’. For users in the United States, there is a Vote World Lens that shoots out red, white and blue stars from an air horn.

After the Facebook copying spree in the desperation to own a Snapchat like app, the tables have turned in this update. Snapchat has borrowed a direct messaging feature that Instagram introduced back in 2013, called Instagram Direct. Long pressing on a snap allows users to reshare the snap with their contacts. The shared snaps appear in chat to initiate a conversation.

The World Lenses can be activated with a long tap anywhere on the screen. A new interface change allows users to navigate to the previous menu with a tap on the left side of the screen. The Lenses for faces can now be applied with a single tap on the face in selfie mode. The update is live and available to users on Android and iOS.