Image sharing chat app Snapchat released its ‘Stories’ update in October 2013. It allows users to post images that are live for 24 hours and can be viewed by friends as often as they wish. The feature is very popular, leading to other apps ‘copying’ it. As a digital agency in Bournemouth, we understand it’s important to keep up with rival businesses, and watch in awe as the battle between Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook grows. Here’s how the social networks are currently competing:
In August 2016, photo-based social network Instagram released ‘Instagram Stories’, an update containing a feature that seemingly echoes Snapchat’s ‘Stories’ heavily, allowing users to post temporary photos that can be viewed an unlimited amount of times before they disappear. This ‘new’ feature may sound as if it was copied straight from Snapchat, and Instagram agrees to an extent, but they argue that it’s not about who created it first, as it is a format that they have put their own spin on. As of June 2017, Instagram stories reportedly has 250 million active users, higher than Snapchat’s 150 million.
In late 2016 / early 2017 Facebook updated its ‘Messenger’ app with a feature titled ‘My Day’, a Snapchat-esque addition that allows people once again to add photos for everyone to see over the next 24 hours. Facebook Messenger Day’s popularity as a feature is unclear, however the messenger app itself has over 1.2 billion users!
Is it working?
Overall, Instagram has swooped in, taken an idea, and overtaken the competition with it, an impressive manoeuvre! However, with Snapchat’s strong user base of over 150 million daily users, it is doubtful that this hit will cause much harm right away. Today’s digital users happily engage with multiple apps several times a day and are likely to be just as hooked on one app as they are another. Watch this space.
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