As Snapchat prepares to go public with its hotly anticipated IPO, it already has a formidable foe. Facebook has been launching digital missiles at the image messaging app for years, building a copycat feature into Instagram, stickers and effects in Messenger, and even testing a Direct Share option for photos in Facebook itself. Now Snapchat has yet another Facebook-backed competitor, and it may prove to be the most formidable at all.
WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging app, just announced that it is getting into the disappearing message game. WhatsApp is celebrating its eighth birthday by launching a complete revamp of its status feature, which helped catapult it to worldwide popularity. Where previously you could only customize it with clever text expressions, now you can share photos and videos as a status update, complete with funky filters and effects.
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