Facebook's WhatsApp Introduces Snapchat-Like Feature (FB, SNAP)

The company's messaging app WhatsApp has announced an overhaul of its status feature which will allow users to share their statuses in the form of videos, pictures and GIFs. The feature was beta tested with users in November last year and will become available on iOS, Android and Windows platforms starting February 24. It has escaped no one's attention that the new feature is very similar to Snapchat Stories. Techcrunch has called it "an encrypted Snapchat clone." WhatsApp Status comes with end-to end encryption and ensures that the status disappears within 24 hours of being set. Privacy settings will allow users to control who sees their status

The announcement couldn't come at a more inopportune time for Snap Inc. The company is expected to go public next month and is currently meeting with potential investors. Analysts remain concerned about Snapchat's user growth and profitability.

"The original idea behind the project was to build an application that lets your friends and other contacts know what you're up to. This was months before we added messaging," said CEO Jan Koum in a blog post. "Even after we added messaging in the summer of 2009, we kept the basic "text only" status functionality in WhatsApp. Every year, when Brian and I would plan projects to work on, we always talked about improving and evolving this original "text only" status feature."

Facebook, which acquired Whatsapp in 2014, also famously tried to buy Snapchat in 2013 for $3 billion. Since then it has integrated Snapchat-like sharing capabilities in its platforms. It introduced a virtually identical feature into Instagram last year with Instagram Stories, a move which was declared its 'most brazen act of Snapchat cloning yet' by tech website The Verge. Facebook Messenger also rolled out a new in-app camera, complete with filters and stickers, for Snapchat-style selfies in December