When almost everyone owning a Smartphone was busy making accounts on Facebook, and making groups on WhatsApp, Snapchat came with something unique and new, a thing called Stories. Photo/Video Status updates that’ll disappear in 24 hours! Messages that destruct themselves after they’ve been viewed once. This was quite new to the users, and attracted many people. Soon, Snapchat gained popularity and people started updating the perfect shots of their pizzas on Snapchat stories rather than making a post for them on Instagram. That made sense, because why would someone be interested in knowing that you ate a pizza on 12th October 2013 while stalking you?
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| Image Courtesy: Google |
WhatsApp too was getting many new users each day, thanks to its excellent servers. Slowly, WhatsApp had replaced SMS, and is going in right direction to rip off the calls too. Its user friendly nature made it the best chatting app even for the older lot.
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Instagram, on the other hand, was now being used to share the best highlights from the thousands of pics clicked during a tour, each pic having a special caption attached to it, making each one special. While, Facebook was used to share multiple photos in the same post with a long essay on how amazing the trip had been.
All was going well with the four apps, each specialising in its own way, to its own target users. Until 2016 and early 2017 gave us a few updates.
First, Snapchat released the memories, after which you could share the old pics on your story. When the update rolled out, I personally felt that soon everyone will start updating their best edited pics on Snapchat too, but gladly, that didn’t happen. Instead, it reduced the number of blank pics with a caption on it.
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| Image Courtesy: Google |
Soon after, Instagram revealed Instagram Stories, which was a clear copy of the Snapchat Stories, including the name. It had the same features as Snapchat Stories, the only difference being it doesn’t let you know if the pic uploaded in recently clicked or is an old one. (Snapchat has a white border around the old pics, to differentiate between them.)
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But now, an app, totally dedicated towards texts, on which only few images were shared, just released their own version of Snapchat Stories. Yes, WhatsApp recently got its update, removing the text statuses entirely (That means no more Can’t Talk, WhatsApp only or Hey there! I’m using WhatsApp.) So, now, a texting app has a 24 hour lasting photos status. What the developing team was thinking, I have no idea. Stories is not a feature that older people would enjoy. Snapchat had hardly any users above 40 years of age, while WhatsApp is used everyday by all ages! I find no reason for which my Grandma would like to upload a pic on her WhatsApp story! At least, she used to change her text status occasionally! WhatsApp was a simple, end to end chatting app, not meant for current status updates. Highly disappointed by the new update.
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Facebook & Instagram added the option to go Live, which helped many celebrities connect better with their fans. This update, if rolled out on Snapchat, can prove to be very interesting, because somewhat Snapchat is an app about that, ie to share things at the time they are happening.
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| Image Courtesy: Google |
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| Image Courtesy: Google |
Along with an update to WhatsApp, we also got an update for Instagram, after which we can upload upto 10 photos or videos in a single post. As I pointed out earlier in this post:
Instagram, on the other hand, was now being used to share the best highlights from the thousands of pics clicked during a tour, each pic having a special caption attached to it, making each one special.
Instagram just lost its speciality after this update. I opened Instagram because I knew I would find only the best pics on my newsfeed there, but after this update, give me a reason why I should open Instagram, when I’m already active on Facebook and Snapchat. Facebook even offers hundreds of different things too. If now Instagram is going to get flooded with random pics, just like Facebook did, it might loose many of its users. People used to spend hours in editing, finding the best filter, thinking of the best caption, before uploading it to Instagram. Now? I guess, not so much. While the caption used to define one pic, it’ll now be a regular statement for 10 pics. The Instagram would loose its quality. What will happen, only time will tell. But, I certainly, ain’t glad with this update.
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| Image Courtesy: Google |
Out of all the apps out there in App Stores, my personal favorite is Snapchat. Probably, the only original app currently. Snapchat has been giving interesting updates regularly, like Lenses, World Lenses, Integrating Bitmoji, and few more keeping the app fresh and fun. If there’s an app that currently needs few major updates is Facebook. There has been practically nothing new to Facebook except Facebook Live for a long time. Also, they need to give their app a makeover, because the same screen for years looks quite boring now. If they role out an update, I hope it is not another app with the 24 hours Story feature. Enough of that, please. Let it be Snapchat’s identity!
Well, today, in my opinion, we got two bad updates for amazing apps like WhatsApp or Instagram. Maybe because one bad update in a day is just too mainstream for Mark Zuckerberg. And since there was nothing original in either of the updates, we can say Mark Zuckerberg should update a text status (if that option is left anywhere), Can’t think, coping only.
If someone’s happy with these updates, that’s certainly not me.
What do you think about these recent updates? Leave your opinion in the comments.
UPDATE:
So, recently Facebook Messenger rolled out an update.
Q: What’s new in that?
A: Nothing. It’s just one more version of Stories. Just another app offering ‘Upload one, and get one deleted for free. Service Guaranteed in 24 Hours’.
Don’t we all have the habit of scrolling downwards for reloading a page? This app opens the camera for us. It really is annoying.
Why, Mark, Why? This feature is not the only thing out there, mayn! You’re the genius behind Facebook! Surely, you can think off a better idea. The teacher always comes to know when her students cheat to impress her. The users are even wiser, bro.
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There are rumors going around that the main Facebook app too will have this feature soon. And, that’s really the last thing Facebook needs. I hope they are false. *Fingers crossed*
After spending few days with Instagram Albums or whatever they are called, I actually feel that they’re not as bad as I thought. People are using it innovatively, like telling a story in the form of comic strips. That worked in favour of Instagram, as long as people use it in this way only and the limit of 10 snaps isn’t increased.
UPDATE 2:
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| Image Courtesy: Google |
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