Facebook Stories: Launch Of Snapchat-Like Story Feature Starts

For Snapchat, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? Facebook Stories, the social network’s version of Snapchat’s own stories feature, started its rollout Wednesday to Facebook’s mobile app, according to a report from TechCrunch.

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Earlier this year, Facebook had previously launched Stories in a limited beta for users in Ireland and Wednesday’s staggered rollout brings it to additional countries in advance of an eventual global launch. According to The Next Web, Stories has launched in countries including Chile, Vietnam and Greece.

As with Snapchat, Facebook Stories allows users to post images and photos onto a feed that can be viewed for 24 hours. Messenger Day, a feature that includes the same functions as Facebook Stories, launched this month in Facebook’s Messenger chat app.

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Stories is the latest competitor for Snapchat, which also launched its initial public offering earlier this month. Along with the upcoming Facebook Stories, Snap has had to contend with competition from Instagram Stories, another Facebook-affiliated competitor. The photo service launched Stories last summer and since then, Instagram said more than 150 million users are using the service daily. Chat service WhatsApp also launched its own Stories-like feature in February.

With Snapchat, Instagram Stories and (eventually) Facebook Stories occupying virtually identical niches, it remains to be seen how users will respond when all three services are active at once. While Snapchat has seen some declines from Instagram Stories, it’ll be interesting to see how many users will want to share posts through all three platforms to reach their audiences.

Plus, while Facebook has the upside of its massive users, Snapchat and Snap stories have generally been used and received well by Snapchat’s younger user base. Once Facebook Stories launches, check back here for additional coverage and how-tos on using the new Facebook feature.