Facebook is stealing the Stories format and invading countries where Snapchat isn’t popular yet. Today in Poland it launched “Messenger Day”, which lets people share illustrated filter-enhanced photos and videos that disappear in 24 hours, just like on Snapchat.
By using the international popularity of Messenger to spread the Stories format, Facebook could boost retention and return visits to its chat app while becoming the primary place where people post off-the-cuff lifecasting content before they get hooked on Snapchat.
Sources in Poland spotted Messenger Day and sent TechCrunch’s John Biggs these screenshots. We reached out to Facebook for comment, and it told us “We know that people come to Messenger to share everyday moments with friends and family. In Poland we are running a small test of new ways for people to share those updates visually. We have nothing more to announce at this time.”
Additionally, Facebook says it frequently runs small tests before rolling products out to other regions, but there’s no guarantee it will expand this feature beyond Poland. It’s unclear, but Facebook might not bring it to the US unless it really blows up abroad. 60 million people in the US and Canada already use Snapchat daily, and aggressively pushing Messenger Day there could annoy them. But in countries where people aren’t that familiar with Snapchat, it has nothing to lose by experimenting.
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