WhatsApp tests its own Snapchat Stories clone

If this ever make its way out of testing, another Facebook-owned app will be getting the Snapchat Stories treatment. WhatsApp is testing what it calls Status, a new feature that will let you share photos and videos you can overlay with emojis and text and it stays up for 24 hours. According to BGR India, the feature is currently available to registered public beta testers of the app using rooted Android or iOS devices.

The app on Android gets a new Status tab between the Chats and Calls tabs. It doesn’t take over your ability to share a status message on the service. What it does is create a new channel for users to share visual content with their contacts. At the moment it doesn’t allow users to manually delete Status updates after they’ve been shared. And they can’t be set to have longer or shorter lifespan online. You can specify which contacts can get the updates. This feature seems to be in line with Mark Zuckerberg’s push to prioritize video content as they try to drive video ad revenue. It’s something that WhatsApp can now take advantage of as it changed its privacy policy to basically allow business to show ads to users. Now, we have to see if this makes it out of beta.

Source: TechCrunch

Facebook tests out another Snapchat-like feature within its main app

Facebook seems so keen on taking Snapchat’s young audience as it keeps trying to replicate the app. This time instead of releasing a separate app, Facebook is trying out Snapchat-like features with the main app. Much like Snapchat, the app will now have a built-in camera with disappearing messages will be live for 24 hours. It has optional special effects, too. And you don’t even need to open Messenger to send these photos and videos to your Facebook friends. The test is currently only running in Ireland and there is no word yet if this’ll make it out of Ireland and past the testing phase.

Source: Recode

Snapchat ventures into hardware with Spectacles

The social media giant Snapchat (now called Snap Inc.) is moving beyond its ephemeral video and messaging app into hardware territory. The company just released smart glasses called Spectacles that’ll lets its users record first-person, 10-second clips at a time. These clips can then be sent via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to your Snapchat app. Think of it as a more millennial-friendly Google Glass or even something like a more portable GoPro. To record clips, you just tap a button mounted on frames. A ring of tiny lights will light up to indicate that you’re currently recording. The camera-glasses makes use of 115-degree-angle lens that looks similar to the human eye’s natural field of view and can be played back in landscape or portrait on your phone. These glasses come in black, teal, and coral and will retail for US$129.99 (around CA$170). Battery life is expected to last a full day out.

A limited number of these glasses will be released. According to Snap Inc.’s CEO Evan Spiegel, “We’re going to take a slow approach to rolling them out. It’s about us figuring out if it fits into people’s lives and seeing how they like it.”

Source: CNET + The Verge

WhatsApp Android beta version gets Snapchat-like stickers

We’ve reached a point where social media apps have started to employ similar features in hopes of keeping its user base or attracting more people into its platform. The latest example is another Facebook-owned company copying Snapchat. WhatsApp released an update for its Android beta app that introduces stickers and the ability to doodle on messages.

Aside from that the app gets pseudo-flash for taking night-time selfies and emojis will start to appear larger in chats when you don’t include text with it. If you use Facebook Messenger, that messaging app has the same feature (re: the bigger emojis).

Source: The Next Web