Facebook Announces Direct, Stories, and Camera Effects

Facebook continues its recent onslaught against Snapchat, launching three new features today: Direct, Stories, and Camera Effects. All of these might look familiar, since they’re essentially being ported from one of Facebook Messenger’s more current releases, all of which was highly influenced by Snapchat.

By now, you should notice Facebook Stories at the very top of your mobile newsfeed. A familiar format by now, Facebook Stories offers a way to publish content that expires in 24 hours, offering a current look into your day.

Also at the top of your feed, you’ll notice Facebook Direct, marked with a paper airplane icon. Another dig at the direct messaging giant Snapchat, Direct allows users to send expiring messages to their Facebook friends, right from within the Facebook app.

Both features come as a bit of a surprise after Facebook booted Messenger out of the Facebook app into its own platform, and the introduction of Messenger Day, an almost-identical clone of Facebook Stories, less than three weeks ago.

Posts in Facebook Stories are independent from Messenger Day, and Facebook Direct messages will not appear within Messenger.

Lastly, Facebook proudly added a slew of fun masks and filters via Camera Effects, the final(?) nail in the war on Snapchat. This addition includes dynamic filters like falling snow, branded and unbranded masks, frames, and more.

These features are rolling out to iOS and Android Facebook users today.

images via Facebook