WhatsApp is the latest Facebook product to mime Snapchat Stories with the newly-announced Status. Jokes around the social circuit suggest that Spigel, CEO of Snapchat, is turning into a top-notch product person for Facebook.
Status allows users to share images and videos with their contacts on WhatsApp in a secure way and will be visible to selected friends for 24 hours, before disappearing – just like Snapchat works.
The feature marks eight years since WhatsApp has been part of our social lives, as this blog points out.
Coinciding with WhatsApp’s 8th birthday on 24 February, we are reinventing the status feature. Starting today, we are rolling out an update to status, which allows you to share photos and videos with your friends and contacts on WhatsApp in an easy and secure way. Yes, even your status updates are end-to-end encrypted.WhatsApp blog
Snapchat has clocked millions of users with its Stories feature, and when Instagram decided to unleash its own Stories, it was inevitable that Facebook’s most popular social platform gets the Stories, or in this matter, Status fever.
In addition to this, reports say that Tinder could soon enter the video story-telling fray with its newly-acquired startup. So, we haven’t seen the last of Stories, especially when they could last for well over 24 hours very soon.
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WhatsApp has been rolling out updates and features to make the app more secure for its users. The social networking app recently rolled out a two-step verification process for all devices to enhance the security of users' accounts.
WhatsApp was recently surrounded by controversy when a Guardian report alleged that the WhatsApp messages can be read or intercepted. However, WhatsApp claimed that the messages and calls on its platform are end-to-end encrypted by default.
(With IANS inputs)
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