Facebook hsa annoucned that it is now replacing Messenger Day on Messenger with Stories. TechCrunch reports that the the social media network is killing Messenger Day brand in an effort to unify Stories on both Facebook and Messenger.
With the new update, Stories, the feature in which images are shared with followers and for 24-hours, will appear in both Messenger and Facebook and views will be synced across both services. A story view on Messenger will not appear as unviewed on the main Facebook and vice versa. The move is the latest in an effort to boost use of Facebook Stories, which has failed to gain traction among its over 2 billion user base. Facebook launched Stories format as an effort to combat the growing popularity of Snapchat, which offered ephemeral messaging as the USP of its service. The Stories feature is also available on WhatsApp as Status and on Instagram as Instagram Stories. The feature has been successful on WhatsApp and Instagram with nearly 300 million users, but it is yet to achieve similar adoption on Facebook's main app.
Back in September, Facebook turned to Instagram in order to make Stories successful on its main app. The company added support for cross-posting from Instagram Stories to Facebook Stories last month in a bid to boost adoption of Stories on the main app. Instagram Stories received a redesigned sharing option with a new "Your Facebook Story" option where users can cross-post on Facebook as well. The feature allows Instagram Stories users to simultaneously post on their Facebook account. the company said that the stories posted on Instagram will be cleared labelled under the user's name to distinguish the medium.
However, the linking between Facebook Stories and Messenger Day is different from the cross-posting option on Instagram Stories. The cross-post from Instagram Stories to Facebook will now automatically appear on Messenger as well, giving Facebook more options to leverage its dominant position and push its Stories format.
In a major overhaul of Stories, Facebook says it is also getting rid of Facebook Direct feature, which allowed users to send private disappearing messages. TechCrunch reports that it will now route all replies to Facebook Stories and Facebook Camera messages through Messenger. It is also launching collaborative Facebook Stories for Groups and Events, further diversifying the platform. It should be noted that Snapchat plans to launch a redesigned app on December to attract more users and make its app easy to understand to an older audience.