“I think the mistake everyone made was to think that Stories was a photography product” says Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom. “If you look at all these interactivity features we’ve added, we’ve really made Stories something else. We’ve really innovated and made it our own.” His version of the ephemeral slideshow format turns two years old […]
View More Instagram’s CEO on vindication after 2 years of reinventing StoriesCategory: Snapchat Clone
Facebook loses $120 billion in market cap after awful Q2 earnings
Facebook’s share price fell over 20 percent in after-hours trading today after the company announced its slowest-ever user growth rate and a scary warning that its revenue growth would rapidly decelerate. Before today’s brutal Q2 earnings, Facebook’s share price closed today at $217.50 – a record high — but fell to around $172 after the […]
View More Facebook loses $120 billion in market cap after awful Q2 earningsFacebook was never ephemeral, and now its Stories won’t have to be
Before Snapchat made social media about just today, Facebook made it about forever. The 2011 “Timeline” redesign of the profile and keyword search unlocked your past, encouraging you to curate colorful posts about your life’s top moments. That was actually an inspiration for Snapchat, as its CEO Evan Spiegel wrote in its IPO announcement that […]
View More Facebook was never ephemeral, and now its Stories won’t have to beInstagram’s “IGTV” video hub for creators launches tomorrow
TechCrunch has learned that the Instagram longer-form video hub that’s launching tomorrow is called IGTV and it will be part of the Explore tab, according to multiple sources. Instagram has spent the week meeting with online content creators to encourage them to prepare videos closer to 10-minute YouTube vlogs than the 1-minute maximum videos the app […]
View More Instagram’s “IGTV” video hub for creators launches tomorrowInstagram plans to launch Snapchat Discover-style video hub
Instagram is preparing to unveil a home for longer-form video — a YouTube competitor and its take on Snapchat Discover. Instagram will offer a dedicated space featuring scripted shows, music videos, and more in vertically oriented, full-screen, high-def 4K resolution according to multiple sources. Instagram has been meeting with popular social media stars and content […]
View More Instagram plans to launch Snapchat Discover-style video hubFacebook Stories reveals 150M daily viewers and here come ads
After 14 months of silence since launching, Facebook Stories has finally announced a 150 million daily active user count for its Snapchat Stories clone. And now it’s time to earn some money off it. Facebook Stories will start testing its first ads today in the U.S., Mexico and Brazil. They’re 5- to 15-second video ads […]
View More Facebook Stories reveals 150M daily viewers and here come ads‘Facebook Avatars’ is its new clone of Snapchat’s Bitmoji
Hidden inside the code of Facebook’s Android app is an unreleased feature called Facebook Avatars that lets people build personalized, illustrated versions of themselves for use as stickers in Messenger and comments. It will let users customize their avatar to depict their skin color, hair style and facial features. Facebook Avatars is essentially Facebook’s version […]
View More ‘Facebook Avatars’ is its new clone of Snapchat’s BitmojiStories are about to surpass feed sharing. Now what?
We’re at the cusp of the visual communication era. Stories creation and consumption is up 842 percent since early 2016, according to consulting firm Block Party. Nearly a billion accounts across Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Messenger now create and watch these vertical, ephemeral slideshows. And yesterday, Facebook chief product officer Chris Cox showed a […]
View More Stories are about to surpass feed sharing. Now what?Facebook and Instagram Stories open to sharing from other apps
Facebook is recruiting help to make its Stories more interesting than Snapchat’s. Starting with Spotify, SoundCloud, and GoPro, third-party apps can now let their users share to Facebook Stories and Instagram Stories. Rather than screenshotting, users will be able to hit a button to share a photo or video of a playlist, song, or mini-movie […]
View More Facebook and Instagram Stories open to sharing from other appsFirst look at Instagram Nametags, its clone of Snapchat QR codes
Instagram is preparing to launch a feature called Nametags that lets you create a special image that people can scan with the Instagram Stories camera to follow you. TechCrunch broke the news of Nametags code in Instagram’s Android APK last month. But now thanks to reader Genady Okrain we have screenshots and more details of […]
View More First look at Instagram Nametags, its clone of Snapchat QR codes3 tests show Facebook is determined to make Stories the default
Facebook isn’t backing down from Stories despite criticism that it copied Snapchat and that Instagram Stories is enough. Instead, it’s committed to figuring out how to adapt the slideshow format into the successor to the status update. That’s why today the company is launching three significant tests that make Facebook Stories a default way to […]
View More 3 tests show Facebook is determined to make Stories the defaultInstagram has an unlaunched “Portrait” feature hidden inside
Eager to one-up Snapchat, Instagram appears to be preparing to expand its collection of shutter modes beyond options like Boomerang and Superzoom. Buried within Instagram’s Android Application Package (APK) is an icon for a Portrait shutter for the Stories camera. This could potentially let people shoot stylized portraits with bokeh effect-blurred backgrounds or other lighting… Read More