WhatsApp Adds Snapchat-Like Story Feature Called Status

CALIFORNIA: More than one billion users of the messaging service WhatsApp are set to discover a new feature that mirrors what you would find on increasingly popular messaging app Snapchat.
The announcement comes just ahead of WhatsApp's 8th birthday on Feb 24.
On its website, WhatsApp said it was 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."
The Status tool which is essentially an update to WhatsApp Status will allow sharing of photos, videos and animated GIFs that will expire after 24 hours, much like how it works on Snapchat Stories.
The feature has existed in Snapchat as Live Stories, since 2014. Facebook Inc, which owns WhatsApp, has adopted the signature feature of its rival Snap Inc, for all of its properties.
Back in August, Facebook introduced the feature in Instagram while testing it for the main Facebook mobile app.
Just like Snapchat and Instagram stories, WhatsApp's ephemeral Status posts can be edited with text, emojis and finger drawings, reported Dow Jones, adding that WhatsApp will give users the option of sending Status postings to their entire contacts list, or to multiple specific users, just as Snapchat and Instagram do.
According to Dow Jones, when asked about the striking similarity to Snapchat, Randall Sarafa, a WhatsApp product manager overseeing the development of Status, replied that it is about meeting user expectations.
"As a company, this is something that we think will be beneficial to our user base," he said. "This mixture of photos, videos and GIFs is a new format for messaging that our users want."
Sarafa said that there are no plans to bring advertising to the messaging app. He added that WhatsApp's goal is to roll out Status globally, but that will take a few weeks. WhatsApp users in the France, the Netherlands, the UK, Spain, Italy, Israel and Saudi Arabia will be able to use the new feature as early as this week.
WhatsApp will reportedly take some time to make sure the feature is working well before releasing it elsewhere. 
source: google

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