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Facebook has been “borrowing” Snapchat features for a while now.  Whether that’s through Instagram, or doing it through their own platform.  Which is why it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that they’re doing it again.  This time, they are playing around with a feature for Messenger that’s an awful lot like Snatpchat streaks.  If you’re not familiar with streaks, it allows you to send snaps back and forth between friends and they come with emoji rewards.  Facebook is saying that this is a fun way to get facts about your friends, but we see it as a rip off of Snapchat in an attempt to increase engagement.

It’s unknown if this is a feature that Facebook is going to incorporate into their platform for all their users.  It’s just in the testing phase right now.  But all the feature is doing is encouraging you to interact with your friends more.  Which feels kind of misguided doesn’t it?  I mean, if they’re your friends in the first place then you’re going to be communicating with them on a fairly regular basis, no?  I know I’ve said this a million times, but I don’t use Facebook.  Why?  Mostly because I can keep up with my friends in real life.  Gasp, I know.  The handful of people that I care to interact with, I am doing so on a regular basis.  So I would never interact with people via Facebook Messenger anyway.

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That being said, a lot of people do.  And that’s sort of how this whole “streak” feature works.  Facebook is wanting you to stay in touch with your friends.  The more you talk to people the longer your streak.  But this feels a bit hollow to me.  Like I said, I don’t necessarily need something that tells me to talk to people.  And if you do, does that suggest something else?  While I won’t insert my own opinion in here, it just seems weird that Facebook needs to tell me to talk to my friends.  It would be weird if anyone had to remind me that I needed to have a conversation with someone, doesn’t it?

Because the Facebook version of streaks is still in the testing phase, it’s unknown if Facebook is actually going to roll this out.  But how could they not?  I mean, all of these platforms are becoming the exact same, aren’t there?  I’ve mentioned before that I do like Instagram, but I miss the traditional Instagram.  I’m slowly getting onboard with Stories, but it just feels a bit too much like all of the other platforms out there.  I want a platform that distinguishes itself from the others.  I want one that comes up with new and innovative features.  Not one that carbon copies all of the others and puts their own twist on it.

If Facebook does end up releasing this feature, it will be interesting to see who comes up with the next “new” thing with these platforms.  And then whether or not the others will “borrow” it for their own use.

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