Another Snapchat-inspired feature from Facebook

After Quick Updates, Facebook is ready to do another Snapchat-inspired test. The move is aimed at enabling users to start creating content the moment they open up their news feeds.

With the feature, users will see an open and active camera window that will ensure ‘record a video’ or ‘snap a picture’ instead of just the “What are you doing?” update prompt. All iOS and Android users in Canada and all iOS users in Brazil will be able to see the active camera window on top of their news feeds.

Facebook, who has been focusing on photos and videos based approach of late, believes that using just text to update status is soon going to be redundant.

Commenting on the new feature, Sachin Monga, Facebook Product Manager, said, "The way that people share has changed a lot. 12 years ago, most of what was shared was text. Now, mobile changed things a little bit, but we didn’t really change our tools. If you look at what people are sharing, now it’s mostly photos, and soon it will be mostly videos. Our strategy is really simple. We want to make it really easy to share photos and videos."

To combat, a marked decline - 15 percent on the y-o-y basis - in people sharing original content, Facebook is giving people access to a whole new niche of content, where users can post home-made videos and pictures on Facebook.

Filters from Facebook acquired MSQRD are also being officially integrated with the camera for the first time, which will enable people to do quite a lot of stuff with the pictures and videos they are creating on the spur of the moment.

When TechPortal asked Monga whether Facebook got the idea from Snapchat, he said, "I think they’ve done a really good job of building a modern composer. The thing that’s created the change from text to visual sharing is that everyone has a phone and a camera in their pocket, but they’ve definitely done a really good job with it."

Without changing much of the dynamics of News Feed, Monga believes, the sharing of original content will benefit the publishers because of the traffic boost that will result from the original content sharing.

Facebook just wants to ensure that its 1 billion-plus users don’t have to go anywhere else and get everything under one roof!