Facebook is the latest social network to copy Snapchat.
Facebook began testing its own version of Snapchat-like features on its flagship app on Friday, Aug. 5, which allows users to include filters and stickers on their photos and videos.
This news comes just days after Instagram launched Stories, the feature CEO Kevin Systrom admitted was copied from its photo app competition.
For now, the new Facebook filter feature, which is being called "creative effects," is only being tested on iOS and Android in Canada and iOS users in Brazil, so U.S. users will have to hold off for now to be able to check them out.
Fittingly so, the feature is being tied into the 2016 Summer Olympics that is being held in Rio de Janeiro. The creative effects to be included to photos and video consist only of Olympic-themed masks and frames.
It was only a matter of time before Facebook introduced filters to its platform after it previously acquired the photo and video effects app MSQRD back in March.
Adding filters to the platform seems like a natural progression for Facebook because of said acquisition and its continued focus on videos. It doesn't even matter it the idea is original or not, since this is the type of feature users want, as well as the type that keeps them coming back daily.
Users will be notified about the new feature upon opening the app, with a banner on the top of the News Feed that invites them to celebrate the Olympic games by using the creative photo effects. The user can then tap on "show camera" to start using the filters and stickers.
Once enabled, any time the select users in Canada and Brazil open the camera when posting a photo or video in the Facebook app, they will be presented with the option to add in masks, filters, frames and drawing tools.
"If we want to make it easy for people to share photos and videos on Facebook, we need to make it really easy for people to capture photos and videos on Facebook," Facebook product manager Sachin Monga said in an interview. "It's our job not only to make it easy to capture photos and videos, but to give people the tools that they want to enhance their stories."
It's not yet clear how long the testing period will be for Facebook filters, but it is expected to continue to roll out for more people in those countries over the next few days.
Source: Tech Crunch
