The world’s biggest social media platform is launching Stories on its main app, which means that Facebook users across the globe can now share stories with their Facebook contacts and also be able to check what their friends are doing in the past 24 hours. As can be seen on the top section of the app, rounded profile pictures will be displayed, representing stories by the user’s friends. Tapping on a profile pic will have the effect of opening a friend’s story, complete with images, videos, illustrations, and even camera effects. What Facebook is basically doing is sort of set up a second newsfeed that is more mobile friendly, and in the process trading the usual text and image content with a form of visual communication (more on this later) aimed at providing a more personal or customized feel.
As soon as users have access to stories, they will be able to see a camera icon located on the top left section of the app. People can then take images and videos, and perhaps incorporate special effects and illustrations, and of course, share the finished product. Beyond 24 hours after being posted, the stories will be gone for good. Facebook has also taken the opportunity to launch Direct, which is a new inbox for direct messages. Similar to Snapchat’s direct messages, this feature allows users to share images and videos to a single friend or to a group, or respond to stories of their friends.
With Stories being rolled out on Facebook’s main app, the feature is now made available to all of the social media giant’s major brands, namely Facebook (main), Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. As can be seen on Instagram, Stories can really take off with the masses and Facebook is certainly hoping this success can be replicated on its main app. Instagram Stories had managed to accumulate 150 million actives users daily, which had prompted the social media giant to begin testing Stories for its main app back in January earlier this year. Before the wide deployment, the feature had already expanded the testing to a dozen countries.
Visual communication had been something that Facebook has been exploring for some time now, but it was only in August of last year (during the 2016 Olympics) that the company began to seriously test the concept, especially through its Facebook Camera. The social media giant even went as far as placing an open camera window on the News Feed home screen. Needless to say, it was a dramatic change, and not many people were fully receptive of it. Facebook has since chosen to hide the camera window, but still offered the users the option of launching it with a swipe.
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https://www.wirefly.com/blog/news/stories-now-main-facebook-app