Facebook-owned WhatsApp Adds Its Own Snapchat Stories Version

By Ava Davis | Feb 24, 2017 01:42 PM EST

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Facebook is expanding its messaging platform, WhatsApp, after pushing out the update of its Snapchat-based 'Status' feature. Like the famous Snapchat Stories, the new feature lets users share photos and videos with their contacts, complete with captions, drawings and stickers.

As WhatsApp messaging app enters its eighth birthday this year, the company has announced a reinvention of its typical text-only status feature by developing another way of status-sharing in the form of videos, pictures and GIFs, an aspect already tapped by similar social media platform such as Instagram and Snapchat.

According to Tech Crunch, the feature was beta tested with users in November 2016 and will soon come on cross-operating system such as iOS, Android and Windows starting today, Feb. 24.

What makes the WhatsApp Status feature against other Stories format is its end-to-end encryption, which statuses disappears within 24 hours of sharing them, Investopedia reported. The video content can also last for 45 seconds, unlike the 10-second duration on other platforms. Another good thing about the "Status" feature is that videos, photos, and GIFs can only be shared by users on people included in their address book, thus limiting its viewing status from anonymous users. Privacy settings will allow users to control who sees their status.

The new format introduced by the Status feature changes WhatsApp's old AOL Instant Messenger-style away messages. The company primarily marketed its messaging platform through reliability, while it elaborated more media features such as video calling and photo-editing features like stickers. 

"The original idea behind the project was to build an application that lets your friends and other contacts know what you're up to. This was months before we added messaging," said CEO Jan Koum in a blog post.

He added: "Even after we added messaging in the summer of 2009, we kept the basic "text only" status functionality in WhatsApp. Every year, when Brian and I would plan projects to work on, we always talked about improving and evolving this original "text only" status feature."

With WhatsApp's 1.2 billion monthly users, the "Status" feature will lure more users on its new sharing experience, which will add on users sending 60 billion messages per day, including 3.3 billion photos, 760 million videos and 80 million GIFs.

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