Facebook announced Facebook Stories over two months ago which seemed like their final blow to make sure that people use the apps in their ecosystem over Snapchat. They had started the Stories feature onslaught on Snapchat with Instagram last year then went on to add it to WhatsApp, then on Messenger and finally to Facebook.
We have had the Stories version on Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp for a while and now we have the chance to see Facebook’s implementation of Stories on their flagship.
I’m currently running the beta version of Facebook for Android and I got the Facebook Stories Update in the morning.
Just as reported before, it looks like the same implementation we have seen on Instagram. Where there is a camera button at the top left to create your Story and a top bar to show the various Stories including yours.
You can either launch Facebook Stories by tapping on the camera button or by making a swipe gesture. You will be greeted with the Facebook camera interface with a back button at the top right, carousel indicator at the middle left and the effects, camera switch, virtual shutter and gallery buttons at the bottom.
Your stories can be photos or videos where a photo is taken by a normal tap on the virtual shutter button and videos are taken by holding on the shutter button. The effects can be added to your Story by scrolling up and down to show the various effects, which are way more fun if you use your selfie camera.
When you take the photo or video and apply the effect, you will be taken to another page which will allow you to add further overlays by tapping on the effects button. If you think you’re ready, you can therefore tap on the share button and it will appear as part of your daily Story.
Well, Facebook Stories are here and interesting enough, it is slightly different from what we see on Instagram, which again is different with what we see on Messenger and WhatsApp.