I'm very interested to see how this goes against SnapChat. I think it could either ruin SnapChat for good, or not make any impact at all because of the fanbase loyalty to SnapChat. It will be interesting to see, that's for sure.
Also, I haven't seen a clear explanation on their implementation when you try to "direct" someone that has not updated their app (don't have the Direct feature) yet. Does it warn you, queue the Direct for when they finally do update, doesn't let you use the feature with them at all, or what?
AFTER UPDATING: It looks like you guys are right, it allows you to send Direct to people who have not updated, so I imagine it just queue's it for them. Also, you cannot set expiration timers, and if you do a group message everyone in the group can see who is in the group (both unlike SnapChat). So, it looks like this will not probably not harm SnapChat at all.
I think this will pretty substantively impact Snapchat's moderate to less prolific users. Most people don't NEED their pictures to self-destruct, they weren't that embarrassing in the first place. This however, allows for more fun engagement after the initial picture sending and once users get a feel for that, people would opt for this I believe.
I agree, I think it will, at least somewhat, impact snapchat because the products are similar.
I'm sure that was the aim here, to create a product that took inspiration from snapchat. Given that it's one of the most popular apps out there with an insane amount of users, and we know that facebook already tried to buy it. I'm sure they didn't want to copy it outright, but if they can integrate some of it's features into their existing products, they may be able to steal some users.
I think it will fail, hard - just like Facebook Poke did. And that was when Snapchat was very, very early. Now it has a ton of momentum behind it, and this is hopeless.
Also, I haven't seen a clear explanation on their implementation when you try to "direct" someone that has not updated their app (don't have the Direct feature) yet. Does it warn you, queue the Direct for when they finally do update, doesn't let you use the feature with them at all, or what?
AFTER UPDATING: It looks like you guys are right, it allows you to send Direct to people who have not updated, so I imagine it just queue's it for them. Also, you cannot set expiration timers, and if you do a group message everyone in the group can see who is in the group (both unlike SnapChat). So, it looks like this will not probably not harm SnapChat at all.