Facebook Messenger Day: Another Snapchat clone that’s already downloaded on your phone
It works in precisely the same manner as Instagram Stories and WhatsApp's new Statuses feature
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Louise Thomas
Editor
Facebook has started rolling out its latest Snapchat clone to users of its Messenger app.
Messenger Day works in almost exactly the same manner as Snapchat, allowing users to post edited pictures and videos that disappear after 24 hours.
It lives in the Messenger app, which features a new row of thumbnails positioned above your conversations, with each one previewing your friends’ latest Messenger Day updates.
You can skip through updates with taps, as you can on Snapchat, and also react to individual Day posts with private messages. Unusually, Facebook hasn’t included a Like option.
The social network attempted to buy Snapchat, which listed on the New York Stock Exchange last week, for $3 billion back in 2013.
Since then, it has ripped a number of the app’s key features.
Instagram Stories, which launched last year, is also near-identical to Snapchat, as is the new Status feature on WhatsApp.
“Facebook has long been the place to share with friends and family, but the way that people share is changing in significant ways,” the company said in January.
“The way people share today is different to five or even two years ago — it’s much more visual, with more photos and videos than ever before.
“We want to make it fast and fun for people to share creative and expressive photos and videos with whoever they want, whenever they want.”
Facebook Stories, a version made for the site’s main app, also exists, but is still in the testing phase.
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