Seems like social app users are bombarded with clone after clone of Snapchat lately
In February, WhatsApp removed its text feature that lets you set your status as ‘Available’ or ‘Away’ and replaced it with a image and video-based update feature that lasts for 24 hours before it disappears. If that sounds familiar, it’s because Facebook has copied the Snapchat-like feature into all of its subsidiaries — Instagram, WhatsApp and the latest on Facebook messenger.
If you hate it, you are not alone. It seems like social app users are bombarded with clone after clone of Snapchat lately. The latest update has had WhatsApp users protesting the messaging application turning into a social media platform.
After a ton of user backlash, WhatsApp is quick to respond and has now brought back its text status feature while still keeping the image status updates.
According to TechCrunch, WhatsApp provided the following statement:
“We heard from our users that people missed the ability to set a persistent text-only update in their profile, so we’ve integrated this feature into the ‘About’ section in profile settings. Now, the update will appear next to profile names anytime you view contacts, such as when creating a new chat or looking at Group info. At the same time, we’re continuing to build on the new Status feature that gives people fun and engaging ways to share photos, videos and GIFs with their friends and family throughout their day.”
The response shows how quickly social platforms much react to user feedback when they make a wrong move, in order to adapt to visual communication and not to alienate their users.
According to Your Story, the WhatsApp users liked it for its simplicity and user-friendly interface. However, the new image-based status feature seemed to take it away from the no-frills concept of a messaging app. The move was largely viewed as Facebook’s attempt to convert WhatsApp into a more social media-like platform which would soon allow brands to advertise on it.
Last week, text statuses have re-appeared in the Android beta version 2.17.95 of WhatsApp in the About section of profiles, according to Gadgets 360. WhatsApp tells TechCrunch that text status in ‘About’ will be updated for all other Android users over the next week and then soon to iOS devices.
WhatsApp has 1.2 billion monthly users, with users sending 60 billion messages per day, including 3.3 billion photos, 760 million videos and 80 million GIFs.
Macrumors reports that most of the criticism is because Facebook is simply introducing more and more of the same thing into their various apps in a bid to combat Snapchat’s growing popularity. It makes social media users retreat to Snapchat, which was the first to debut the feature of sharing images, videos, and GIFs that disappear after 24 hours.
How Other Apps’ ‘Snapchatification’ Is Being Received
Instagram Stories
Instagram was the first platform to blatantly copy Snapchat’s features — and did not even bother changing the name from Snapchat stories. However, it has been the most successful at stealing a large chunk of Snapchat’s user base.
Instagram Stories has reached 150 million daily users, according to Facebook, growing to be the same size as Snapchat. This is a huge blow to the platform, as it also seems to have stolen users and high-profile influencers from Snapchat.
Tom Conrad, VP of Product at Snapchat, recently tweeted a ‘burn’ in response to a caption contest by Kevin Weil, Head of Product at Instagram. The tweet was later quickly deleted.
Tech Crunch reported that Instagram Stories was also lowering Snapchat’s viewcounts, according to analytics providers and social celebrity managers. Snap’s IPO filing showed a 82 percent drop-off in its user growth rate from 17.2 percent in Q2 2016 before Instagram Stories went to 3.2 percent after in Q4.
The success of Instagram Stories is attributed to the app’s existing popularity as a visual content provider. There seems to be a large chunk of overlap in terms of young users for both platforms, making it easy to switch over to an app they already use.
Messenger Day
The same success cannot be said for Messenger Day, yet another attempt by Facebook to outrightly copy Snapchat. The tech giant seems to be cloning the Snapchat function at every place possible with an uncanny resemblance.
According to Tech Crunch, the disappearing-story function was launched inside the Facebook Messenger app last week. It is not available to users in all markets yet, but Singapore users should already be able to see that function. It is the latest stab at Snapchat after the WhatsApp status in February and Instagram stories in August last year. Majority of the 1.7 billion people who use Facebook on mobile each month uses their mobile app.
Meanwhile, Facebook users are not receptive to yet another copycat, though. Users have slammed the obtrusiveness of Messenger Day, sitting right on top of your chats on the app.
According to Recode, users have called it “massively distracting and obtrusive”, breaking the user experience to promote a feature it cares about more than its users.
WhatsApp Status and Messenger Day is an obvious attempt to provide opportunities to monetise the apps by injecting ads. While it could be a good attempt at limiting Snapchat’s growth, the social media company has been criticised for sacrificing the user experience for a strategic objective. This ‘Snapchatification’ has led some to believe the features are more designed to fulfill Facebook’s desires rather than the users’, a far cry from their previous strategy of putting user experience first.
The social media giant probably needs to dial back on the cramming of new features, and roll out less intrusive functionalities. It needs to listen and respond to feedback so as not to alienate their billion users.