Facebook is said to be testing its own Snapchat competitor app which allows users to send photos privately that self destruct after a set period of time. According to AllThingsD, sources familiar with the matter say that the app will launch in the coming weeks sometime before the end of the year.
The app will be completely separate from the Facebook app. Snapchat launched in September 2011 on iOS and has quickly grown over the past year. In late October 2012 when their Android app launched, founder Evan Spiegel revealed that users are now sending 20 million photos per day and have surpassed 1 billion photos sent total.
Here is how the functionality works:
- You take a photo and decide to send it.
- Add text if you want and then choose how long the photo will appear to a friend or group of friends. You can select up to 10 seconds.
- Choose a friend or friends to send the photo to.
- The photo will self destruct after the allotted time being deleted from recipients’ phones and Snapchat servers.
It’s no surprise that Facebook finds the functionality worth implementing in their own app. Sexting is on the rise with smartphones being prevalent in the marketplace and this functionality will help users be more safe with what they’re sharing.
Of course it goes without saying that if you don’t want something seen by others, you probably shouldn’t share it. However, that’s not going to stop people from taking revealing photos of themselves and sharing with very close friends or significant others.
Facebook currently has three standalone apps, four if you count Instagram.
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