Facebook is set to prototype a feature that will mimic the 'Close Friends Feature' of Instagram, allowing users to share some of its content with specific group of friends, instead of everyone they are friends or connected with, on the platform—a feature that might demonstrate helpfulness for anyone who hopes to keep the snoopers out of their newsfeeds.
Now, according to gizmodo.com, the leading social media company has developed a model for Messenger named 'Favorites' that would let the users share with chosen "group of people" stories that eventually disappear after a short time. The code, still according to the tech news site, was spotted by Jane Manchun Wong, an app researcher in the Android App. Despite this discovery, Wong and Facebook management said Facebook users should not expect this development anytime soon.
No Immediate Plans Yet for the Rollout
In the same Gizmodo article, a spokesperson for Facebook Messenger said the company has no immediate plans yet for a rollout. He added that 'Favorites' is not a feature they are currently testing, and there is no plan either of a launch at this time. Using mockups for the demos which Won generated and the Messenger spokesperson confirmed, this feature would vitally function by allowing the users to choose between "sharing Stories through Messenger, with their Favorites, instead of all their Friends on FB Messenger.
Meanwhile, the feature 'Close Friends,' which was launched on the Instagram Stories recently, is a way to enhance sharing for more intimate moments with smaller groups of friends that the user chooses. Like this Instagram feature, Facebook Messenger's 'Favorites' is to allow the user to share their Stories on FB Messenger, to a small group of people separately (not in a particular group chat) although he can still use Messenger for specific group chats outside of their stories.
'Close Friends' Brings Confusion
Not everyone who has heard of this future development from FB messenger is excited about the feature. In fact, to some, "Close Friends Feature" is a bit confusing. Incidentally, Facebook and what it calls the "family of apps" use many different terminologies to describe tools within its various platforms; not to mention, FB is allegedly notorious for copying its competitors' popular features. The most significant dissimilarity is that the main app of FB has been entirely mired in scandals over privacy use.
Setting aside the fact that Facebook's other platforms have been the concentration of privacy scandals, they are all still run by what tech experts describe as the "similar data-hungry and recklessly negligent execs" who initially brought Facebook to the world. The majority of these companies would certainly want to de-accentuate a so-called toxic brand. The company is rebranding all of its apps, having a Facebook label highlighted more prominently, and creating similar features across different platforms is quite mysterious, to say the least.
