Facebook Stories Gives Snapchat a Run For Its Money

Rolling out this week to a Facebook app near you is a “new” feature called Stories. A borderline knockoff of Snapchat (and almost identical to its Instagram counterpart), Facebook Stories allows users to “send photos and videos to individual friends, add to your story or make a post.”

The app offers everything you’d expect: face-warping filters, stickers, disappearing content after 24 hours, and even sponsored content to promote upcoming movies like Alien: Covenant, Despicable Me 3, and Power Rangers. Besides its “Find A Face!” filter options, which offers a wide range of icons and live stickers to add to your posts, the app is basically Snapchat for Facebook.

One unique aspect of Facebook Stories is wide variety of effects like masks, frames and interactive filters. While Snapchat and Instagram only have a few to choose from, Facebook Stories offers dozens of them, giving content creators more control and creativity. The app will soon offer even more community interaction, too. According to Facebook product manager Connor Hayes in a blog post earlier this week, “Over the coming months, we plan to introduce new ways for the Facebook community to create their own frames and effects that can be used on any photo or video created with the new Facebook camera. Our goal is for the camera to be a home to hundreds of dynamic and fun effects that give you new ways to connect with friends, family, and your community.”

The update should show up for most Facebook app users this week. Just be sure to update your app to the latest version, and look for the “Your Story” button at the top of the News Feed. For those who don’t want to over-post to Facebook, don’t worry – you can choose whether or not the Story gets posted to your Timeline or the News Feed. Like Instagram and Snapchat, users can also send direct stories to specific friends with the option to view, replay and replay.

According to Hayes, the social networking site made Stories so people could “share creative photos and videos with whomever they choose, for however long they choose” in a “fast, fun and easy” way. It has yet to be seen whether Facebook will make a dent in the loyal Snapchat user base or not.

Have you tried Facebook Stories? What do you like most about it? Let us know in the comments below!