Facebook Adds Snapchat-Like Features to iOS Photo Tool

Facebook Adds Snapchat-Like Features to iOS Photo Tool :: Mobile Application and Cloud Strategies :: Yankee Group Facebook isn’t letting its failure to acquire Snapchat get in the way of offering its users Snapchat-like features. The social network giant updated its iOS photo uploader tool to let users overlay text, preview filters, add stickers and more – much like Snapchat.  

TechCrunch reports users with the new uploader see a vertical line swoop across their chosen photo, alerting them they can swipe immediately to edit the picture using auto color correction or a variety of filters, such as “Vintage” sepia or black-and-white “Snow.” Users can also edit the photo with a variety of tools beyond the filters, including adding tags, text, cropping or stickers. The new features are currently available for iOS, with Android support coming later.  

Facebook will not gain any significant advantage from imitating features from other messaging apps, but this is something it needed to do to keep up. The competitive advantage that newer social messaging apps have is not in the bells and whistles, but in the fact that they’re not Facebook. However, the messaging space is growing increasingly crowded and many apps are beginning to look very similar. This is an indication that the market is saturated and will start consolidating sooner or later. The most valuable asset these companies have is the number of active users. Facebook is still leading, and has survived several waves of competing apps that did not go beyond being the ‘flavor of the month.’ I don’t expect Facebook will be the only social messaging app standing in the end, but for many of these newer apps, there will be increased pressure to monetize in a shorter period of time.

451 Research Senior Analyst Raúl Casta?ón