Spare a thought for Snapchat. Having already been ripped off by Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and Facebook, WhatsApp is the latest Zuckerberg enterprise to announce it will be launching a broadcast social media function.
Replacing the old MSN Messenger-style text status which launched with the app, the reworked feature will allow users to leave doodles, photos, videos and GIFs that disappear after 24 hours. Just like Snapchat, friends can reply with images and videos of their own.
“Every year, when [Brian Action] and I would plan projects to work on, we always talked about improving and evolving this original “text only” status feature,” said WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum. “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.”
Last year, WhatsApp added video calling for the first time along with additional camera features such as doodles. It’s estimated that 1.2 billion people use the app monthly, with 60 billion messages sent per day.
