Facebook has been on a roll in trying to incorporate features that are in Snapchat to its products. It knows that it has to keep up with Snapchat in offering features that are proving to be popular with millennials, to prevent a future where it will be deemed as an ephemeral company.
Their latest exploit is by announcing Flash, their Snapchat clone for emerging markets.
According to Recode,Flash is a standalone app that allows you to share photos and videos while also allowing you to add face masks like what we see on Snapchat. Apparently Flash is less than 25 MB, which is relatively smaller than the humongous Facebook apps or Snapchat for that matter.
Flash was apparently designed for markets where the data connectivity is weak or the availability of Wi-Fi is scarce. This is a strategy Facebook has for emerging markets where they release “Lite” versions of apps like for the Facebook app and recently the Messenger one.
This is a bold move by Facebook to take on Snapchat head on in the quest for retaining its active user base. They have integrated Snapchat-like features on WhatsApp on their camera UI and Status, Instagram Stories and a test on Messenger where people can post updates that expire after a day. Facebook bought MSQRD a while ago and it seems this is the second time they are using the technology on the app after using it on Facebook Live.
Flash has been in Brazil which is an interesting take for the company to target Latin America first with the product, although apparently they have plans to bring it to other products. The only thing to watch out from this move is if it will be successful and the likelihood it might scare Snapchat.
