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disappearing act
Facebook is copying Snapchat again, but not in the way you would expect
The service is experimenting with a feature that will allow posts on the main site to delete themselves after a set period of time.
A FEW MONTHS ago, Facebook released its own rival to Snapchat called Slingshot.
At the time, the app’s unique selling point was making you reply to a message first before you can view it. The idea was to get more people sending photo and video messages instead of just looking at them, and increase interaction.
That criteria has now been removed meaning it’s essentially Snapchat in everything but name, and similar to the many other apps released with this idea in mind.
Now Facebook is copying the self-destructing idea for its main app, experimenting with the idea of posts having an expiration date.
The feature allows users to give their posts a lifespan ranging between an hour to seven days.
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The feature itself is only being tested with a small number of iOS users in New Zealand so there’s nothing to suggest that the feature will be official.
Facebook has carried out similar tests before like paying to message people you don’t know, a satire tag and stickers in comments among other things so whether this will become an official feature is anyone’s guess.
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