
Facebook launches Stories in its main app - danijelb
https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/28/facebook-launches-stories-in-the-main-facebook-app/
======
jasode
I thought a big factor for Snapchat was that it _did not_ have Facebook users.

Teens and 20-somethings liked the fact that Snapchat was their smaller circle
of _real friends_. Facebook has that goofy uncle, and coworkers from 5 jobs
ago, and old classmates you _don 't_ really want to stay in touch with.
Facebook has too many "weak ties".

Therefore, Facebook could clone every feature of Snapchat but it can't change
the fact that it is _still Facebook_. The new features might keep Facebook
users from switching to Snapchat but would it entice Snapchat users to switch
to Facebook? Sure, people can use social networks for a myriad of reasons but
Snapchat _the network_ seems to be a dominant factor.

~~~
gambiting
I never understood why people are so averse to unfriending people they don't
talk to on Facebook. I'm down to few dozen "friends" on facebook because every
couple months I go through the list and delete everyone I haven't spoken with
or who is not relevant to my interests anymore. Also - no family friends,
that's like rule number one.

~~~
matt_wulfeck
Every place has a culture, which has rules and expectations that don't depend
on your own personal opinions. I would agree with GP that the culture of
Facebook says that unfriending someone means something negative towards them.

~~~
tzakrajs
Sure, it is negative, but if you didnt want to be friends with them (not even
virtually), why would you be so crushed up about their feelings?

~~~
filoleg
Because I would like to be an acquaintance, but facebook doesn't have that
option. Crushing feelings of friendly acquaintances who didn't do anything
wrong doesn't seem like a nice thing to do.

~~~
Shish2k
> Because I would like to be an acquaintance, but facebook doesn't have that
> option

It literally does have that option - go to their profile, click the "friend"
dropdown, change it from "friend" to "acquaintance", see that they stop
showing up in your feed :)

[http://www.bewebsmart.com/social-media/facebook/use-the-
acqu...](http://www.bewebsmart.com/social-media/facebook/use-the-
acquaintances-list-hide-updates/)

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fogetti
"After 24 hours, posts in your story disappear forever" \- Yeah, sure. You
mean it stays in Facebook datacenters forever. Just a slight difference. :)

~~~
jakebasile
Is that any different than Snapchat? There's no proof either way.

~~~
rublev
>"Snapchat servers are designed to automatically delete Snaps after they’ve
been viewed by all recipients. Opened Snaps typically cannot be retrieved from
Snapchat's servers by anyone, for any reason. Also, Snapchat servers are
designed to automatically delete unopened Snaps after 30 days. However,
unopened Snaps sent to a Group Chat are deleted by default after 24 hours."[0]

[0] [https://support.snapchat.com/en-US/a/when-are-snaps-chats-
de...](https://support.snapchat.com/en-US/a/when-are-snaps-chats-deleted)

~~~
jakebasile
I mean, sure, but I'm saying that neither are open source so you have to take
the companies at their word.

~~~
glaslong
Open source (and being able to verify they're actually running that code)
would ultimately be better, but at least this way you have a point of
reference to hold the company accountable when it inevitably comes out that
they weren't faithful to their marketing.

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chwilson
Instagram and Whatsapp stories I can understand - I don't particularly think
they're good decisions, but I can understand them.

To an extent it makes even more sense in the Facebook app itself, but having
the core app and Messenger have _separate stories_ despite them using the
_same exact account_ is ridiculous to me.

~~~
jakebasile
Yep, this doesn't make any sense to me. I get WhatsApp/Instagram not working
together. But Messenger and Facebook are two sides of the same product and the
snapchat clones in each are completely separate. They spent a lot of effort
making both Facebook and Messenger required on mobile, and now that it was
successful it seems they're trying to separate them out, but that leaves a
functionality hole in Facebook itself - Messenger IS Facebook's messaging
feature, except when it isn't.

EDIT: Stories also don't appear to show up on facebook.com.

EDIT 2: I just remembered that you _can_ use Messenger without a Facebook
account[1]. Having them separate still doesn't make sense.

[1]: [https://www.facebook.com/help/messenger-
app/1526848634305688](https://www.facebook.com/help/messenger-
app/1526848634305688)

------
pkamb
I've loved using Instagram Stories since they launched, but have absolutely no
interest in using the equivalent features in Messenger or Facebook proper. And
Snapchat never really took for me.

The people I see on Instagram aren't my small circle of real friends, or my
bigger bigger circle of old acquaintances, but rather (mostly random)
interesting people posting interesting photography of subjects I'm interested
in. The Stories feature (temporary, unpolished) compensates perfectly for the
deficiencies of the main Instagram product (permanent, curated), and vice
versa.

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castis
I've been parroting for a while that Snapchat was a feature masquerading as a
business (I got that idea from somewhere but I don't remember where). Once FB
messenger gets the filter goofiness that SC has (maybe it does already, I dont
know), that'll be everything SC had to offer that I am aware of.

Unless SC does something novel soon, I wouldn't assume that it's going to be
around for much longer.

~~~
yeukhon
It will stick around for several more years but the business model for SC is
really questionable to keep up with making profit ever. The whole "I've got a
lot of active users" is pretty much a building on fire, much like Uber in
general. The fire will go on for as long as there are enough oxygen and enough
material to burn until users starts to drop or advertisers see no value
returning from paying Snapchat. SC won't completely go away for a long time,
much like MySpace is still a thing today. Uber on the other hand is sort of
"too big to fail" because of the amount of users it has already accumulated
and already invested. Don't think SC will be too big to fail ever, but it will
be interested to see how SC plays out in the next couple years with its
production evolution.

~~~
amyjess
> The whole "I've got a lot of active users" is pretty much a building on fire

Isn't this what caused the dot-com bust of 2000?

~~~
yeukhon
Yeah, I think so. I think we are seeing this with Uber already, which I am
afraid Uber will become the eventual too big to fail, but it can fail if
nothing done right since in 2016 Uber has lost $3B already. Like I said, SC's
failure wouldn't be a huge loss for investors. It's going IPO.

------
chatmasta
At what point will Facebook totally kill m.facebook.com and force users to
download the app? They've already done this with messenger; it's only a matter
of time before they do the same for Facebook.app.

That will be the day I finally leave Facebook for good, because I have no
interest in downloading that monstrosity of a spy device onto my iPhone.

~~~
huseyinkeles
what makes you think that your iPhone is not a spy device itself?

~~~
r3bl
Because Apple, unlike Facebook, doesn't have any product that would benefit
from utilizing your data? As far as I know (could be wrong, never had iPhone),
Apple doesn't tweak your iPhone experience based on your previous usage.

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EGreg
Remember when Facebook copied twitter and pushed hard for everyone to write
public posts on their wall?

Facebook's character fundamentally changes - again.

~~~
AJ007
This is an insightful comment. It is easy to forget not just how different
Facebook of 2017 is from 2007 but the cycles they've gone through.

Facebook measures and adapts to user engagement. When something spurs a loss
of engagement eventually it disappears. In the social space, other tech
companies struggle just getting a few new things shipped and then bail when
they don't look like they are working out.

It is in Facebook's best interest to see Snapchat fail. The next big thing
that comes around, it will be a lot easier for Facebook to buy early on.

On another note, if Instagram, Messenger, Whatsapp, and Facebook all start
looking like the same app, it gives Facebook a particularly powerful platform.
Everything could end up being rolled up in to a single app in the future -- or
a new device.

~~~
tqkxzugoaupvwqr
A single-purpose (=Facebook) device has already failed. And it doesn’t look
like Facebook is going to role apps into one. More the opposite: Give the
illusion of choice. Facebook is behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Many
people repulse Facebook but still use their non-Facebook branded services.
Some of the features converge, but the apps won’t merge. It is only to drown
out the competition (Snapchat).

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miguelrochefort
This is stupid. We now have stories in 10 different apps. Who thought this was
a good idea?

~~~
mrmondo
I think Facebook are gripping at anything to appear that they're still
relevant

~~~
pugio
1+ (2?) billion users. You make it sound like they're a has-been.

~~~
dbbk
1.86B as of December.

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mici
Did they betatest this feature? I swear I've had it for at least a week or two
now, and I've seen some friends post a couple of stories as well. I thought it
was much less popular than the stories in Instagram or Messenger, but maybe
most of them didn't have the feature yet. Anyway, Snapchat still seems to be
by far the most popular for this functionality, at least in my circle of
friends.

~~~
capocannoniere
Facebook is known to A/B test features in other countries before rolling them
out to the rest of the world.

Stories in particular launched earlier this year in Ireland, Chile, Greece and
Vietnam.

> Facebook Stories, a feature that puts photos that disappear after 24 hours
> at the top of the Facebook mobile app, is rolling out to users in Chile,
> Greece and Vietnam, Facebook confirmed. However, it is not available to
> users in all markets. The feature was first tested among users in Ireland in
> January [...] [1]

[1] [https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/15/facebook-stories-roll-
out/](https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/15/facebook-stories-roll-out/)

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oakesm9
Am I right in thinking that these are completely separate to the Instagram
stories?

~~~
bhouston
They are trying to kill Snapchat by coping it repeatedly in all their
products. Pretty interesting strategy and I suspect it may work. Sort of feels
like Google's desparate G+ attempt to clone Facebook.

It does feel a bit hacked onto the main Facebook experience though.

~~~
mattnewton
What makes you think it will work? G+ is like the poster child for fighting
the wrong way, a technically more advanced product that lacked the user base,
and thus the point, of Facebook. Isn't Facebook doing the same thing with
Snapchat, where the different user base is the real draw, not the tech?

~~~
L_Rahman
The difference is that Facebook already has a captive audience and G+ never
did.

~~~
mattnewton
But, as a sibling comment suggested, it has the wrong audience: your mother,
your coworkers, and your ex.

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jakebasile
Do these stories sync with those in Messenger? Seems weird if it doesn't but
there's no mention in TFA.

~~~
firloop
It appears that stories in Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and Messenger are
all completely separate from each other. If you want to post to all Facebook
products and Snapchat, you'll have to do it five times.

edit: Facebook and Messenger may be linked. oops. Well, if you wanted to post
to all Facebook products stories and Whatsapp, you'd have to post four times;
tons of redundancy remains.

~~~
jakebasile
That's pretty goofy. I don't use all of those, but of the group Facebook and
Messenger are the most directly tied so it'd make sense to sync, or more
succinctly just make it the same product.

I get the appeal of stories and I may actually use it, but I think their
shotgun approach is a bit too unfocused.

~~~
scottmf
Facebook is trying hard to make Messenger a separate product from Facebook.

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recursive
What's the difference between a regular facebook post and a "story"? It auto-
deletes in 24 hours. Is that the only difference? Why would anyone care? I
don't get it.

~~~
k-mcgrady
When you view your story it auto plays all posts in the last 24 hours in a
kind of video reel.as for the point of the 24 delete it means people can post
less important things they wouldn't usually bother posting. For example they
could post 10 items in a day without clogging friends news feeds.

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adamnemecek
this is what a dying company looks like. fb is such a smorgasbord of features
as is, putting more in really isn't the way forward.

~~~
dbbk
A dying company with annual net income of $10B, okay.

~~~
adamnemecek
I'm talking about cultural relevance. AOL still has a revenue of $700M btw.

~~~
dbbk
Yes because Aol is a media publisher now. What's your point? Facebook is a
dying company because it's not "cool" anymore? That's not really an objective
measurement.

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hmans
The only app on my phone that's not trying to copycat Snapchat is Termux.

