Philippine economy

Netizens mock Messenger for new Snapchat-like features

Rappler.com

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Netizens mock Messenger for new Snapchat-like features
Facebook's messaging platform now has vanishing content and a new host of filters and effects

MANILA, Philippines – Facebook on Friday, December 16, rolled out a set of new features for its messaging app, Messenger, that are Snapchat-like in nature. 

Part of Snapchat’s popularity came from the fact that it allowed users to play around with their photos and videos, thanks to filters and effects called “lenses.” With the update, Facebook Messenger – home to about a billion members – is mimicking the said act as it introduces its own litany of masks, effects, stickers and frames. 

In order to access the new features, a user needs to tap the camera button on the app. Once you’re in there, you can now add virtual objects – including Christmas lights, hats, glasses and a bunch of other things – to your photos.

Users may also draw on photos, add text, or apply different frames to liven things up. Also available are filters that produce various aesthetic effects for your selfies. 

Messenger is also incorporating a 24-hour expiration period for content posted through its  “Messenger Day” feature – which, you guessed it, is exactly like Instagram and Snapchat’s “Stories.”

Given the similarities, not a few netizens have come out to criticize and mock Messenger’s “adaptation” of the iconic features of Snapchat. We’ve compiled some of them here: 

The reaction was swift on Facebook: 

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People on Twitter were equally unforgiving:

With the update, there is less to differentiate Snapchat from other social networks. The pressure grows on them as tech giant Facebook attempts to steal back some of the pie that Snapchat and its formerly novel features were able to take. – Rappler.com

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