Facebook and Snapchat Up Against Each Other

Who knew Snapchat ever pose as a threat to the social media giant; but it is and Facebook needs to be prepared.

Facebook Inc. up till now had no real threat in the market, however, Snapchat with its latest features have signaled the social media giant, that it is here to stay and is not just a play toy anymore. Last month, the social media network bought Masquerade -an app quite identical to the video messaging app, Snapchat and in retaliation the video messaging app bought Bitstrips that gained popularity on Facebook in 2013.

The fact Facebook has been striving to be a leader in the messenger and chat market for a few years now; and the best way to tackle competition in the specific market has been to buy to the competitor. As for Snapchat, before this, the social media giant had not even thought twice about Snapchat – but should it be worried now? Now, that the app has launched features that have been quite prominent on Facebook’s messenger and it is no longer just ‘any other’ app, we believe that the social media website should feel threatened.

Snapchat’s 2.0 upgrade caught Facebook’s eye; the app is now directly a threat to the social media’s messenger. Vanity Fair stated that the upgrade 2.0 lets snapchat users make voice calls, send video and audio messages, and along with that it also allows users to have a private video chat session; users can choose the people they want to talk to and simply starting shooting the video. The upgrade also has over 200 new stickers (as emoticons is the new internet language); these stickers are quite different from the ones that are available on WhatsApp and Facebook messenger however they seem very appealing.

On the contrary, Facebook, in an effort to tackle this new move by the video and photo messaging app, is working on a new feature of the messenger by the name of Secret Conversations. No other details regarding this feature have been made available or announced by the social media site currently however it will interesting to find out what the company has in store for its users now. The name does suggest that the new feature could be something Snapchat’s disappearing ability – maybe the messages might disappear after 10 seconds, who knows!

Vanity Fair is stated that if this new Secret Conversation feature is not something close to Snapchat’s disappearing feature, then this feature could simply mean that the social media network is working on some heavy encryption to keep user’s conversations and chats private.

Yet another concern that the social media website has regarding Snapchat is advertisers. To make money, Facebook has heavily relied on advertisements however now that Snapchat is making an impact, many advertiser might prefer to go towards that app as it will be able to interact with customers in a more social way. Snapchat is providing an alternative to advertisers in place of TV ads however if it wants to go forward with that, it will need to open up to the kind of tracking and targeting that Facebook provides to its advertisers.

However, we do believe that will not be much an issue for Facebook due to its huge customer base; its current billions of users already overshadows Snapchat users all across the world. The company will be working on keeping its user’s attention towards itself which can provide to be a difficult task for the company of that magnitude though not impossible.

Apple Watch Gets Facebook Messenger

Apple has finally launched the Facebook messenger for its Apple Watch which will enable the users to send and receive voice messages, emojis etc. Apple has now officially launched Facebook messenger on its Apple Watch. The new Facebook messenger on Apple watch will now allow users to send stickers, voice notes, likes, emojis and much more. Facebook messenger on WatchOS2 was released on Thursday and is supported only by the latest version of IOS software. The updated app is now available for download from the iTunes store. The WatchOS2 users can now easily access to their Facebook messages using the FB messenger. The messenger on watch will be useful when you have your handset in your bag and you want to reply to a message promptly. For that you can use your Apple watch. You can not answer the messages either by sending stickers, like or select from predetermined answers. The messenger will also allow the users to send and receive voice messages using a built-in microphone in the watch. Photos can also accessed from the watch. The watch however won’t support animated sticker and GIFs. If you are used they will show as static on the messenger app. The app is handy as users can send and receive messages quickly as they won’t be able to send long messages through the app. It needs to be seen whether the Facebook messenger app will work well with the watch or not. Facebook messenger can now also be accessed from iPad’s multitasking apps. The messenger contacts and conversations can now also be searched from the screen of users’ iPhones as announced by Apple and Facebook. So you can now keep yourself updated with your friends and family even without your phone and laptop through the Apple watch Facebook messenger. It needs to be seen when Apple will launch the full version of the much awaited Facebook app which the company had hinted to launch soon back in March 2015. Analysts in the tech industry who have been keeping a track on the giant’s movement on its smart watch are of the opinion that this step of the iPhone makers is a huge step for the social networking giant, as it will help it to get more users on his network. On the other hand, for all its valuable customers which are opting for the smart watch, the tech company has already announced that all the users have to do is to update their OS on the Watch and they will be good to go.