Facebook is globally launching Messenger Day to put a utilitarian spin on the slideshow format. While Snapchat Stories is for retelling what you’ve done,..
Today Facebook is globally launching Messenger Day to put a utilitarian spin on the slideshow format. While Snapchat Stories is for retelling what you’ve done, Messenger Day’s “Who’s up for?” filters and Active Now indicators help you find friends to chat and meet up with.
Now after gaining millions of users through tests in a dozen countries like Poland and Australia , Messenger Day is rolling out for everyone at the top of Facebook’s chat app with today’s iOS and Android updates, plus in desktop messaging threads. The feature lets you share with the public or a custom friend decorated photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours.
If Messenger Day catches on, it could encourage visual communication through Messenger’s newly enhanced camera , jumpstart chat threads and get friends together offline. And Facebook’s VP of messaging David Marcus tells me Day will “probably” insert advertisements between posts to become one of Messenger’s first revenue streams.
Alongside WhatsApp Status , Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories , Messenger Day could use convenience to compete with Snapchat for user growth, which has become a key weakness for Snap as it goes public. A billion people already use Messenger, after all. Snap’s share price dipped slightly this morning as Messenger Day was announced.
The launch demonstrates Facebook’s philosophy that while Snapchat may have invented Stories, it’s actually a fundamental content medium bigger than any one company. Facebook is not afraid to copy, no matter what critics say. All that matters is whether it’s valuable to users.
People will naturally ask why they need another place to share, and maybe they don’t. But if Messenger can reimagine the Stories format around usefulness instead of just fun, without inconveniencing the rest of the chat app, it could spur us to make more memories instead of just consuming old ones.
“This is about today. It’s not about yesterday. It’s not about tomorrow,” Marcus tells me. “The two key functionalities are 1) I’m going to set context because it’s going to make for better conversations if people know where I am and what I’m doing. And 2) It’s about where I want to take my day, like ‘I’m bored and I want to go out for coffee’ or ‘I want to go see a movie’ so I’m going to use a frame, take a photo, and see which of my friends are going to engage with me to actually make that plan, because planning is one of the core capabilities of a messaging app.”
I got to spend yesterday trying Messenger Day on my own, and was impressed by how it accomplished both those objectives without adding friction to the app.
Messenger Day appears above your chat threads on Messenger’s home screen, employing the same bold design that helped Instagram Stories rocket to 150 million daily users in 5 months. There you’ll see thumbnail tiles previewing the Days of friends, instead of just a name and profile pic. They’re reverse chronologically ordered to help you make plans with people sharing now.
