Facebook is adding some much-needed features to its Stories feature. And it’s borrowing from its photo-sharing service Instagram to do it.
The world’s largest social network will now allow users to use the Boomerang feature popularized by Instagram Stories in their Facebook Stories, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Thursday. Additionally, Facebook Stories will allow users to create doodles that can intelligently identify what’s in the camera frame and virtually interact with them even as users move the camera.
Facebook, which is in crisis mode over its data collection and sharing with third-parties, has been trying to legitimize Stories on its social network. The feature is designed to allow Facebook mobile app users to chronicle in real time what’s happening in their day. The Stories are accessible at the top of the news feed for their friends to see. However, Facebook Stories has been slow to take off and the company has tried to boost usage by making it available to companies and by offering other enhancements. So far, however, Instagram has won the day on Stories and remains a top place for people to share the unique Story content you won’t typically find in a news feed.
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Borrowing from Instagram (and to some degree, Snapchat) seems like a logical move for the company. Instagram Stories have proven exceedingly popular. It also might help if Facebook, which is facing the worst fight in its history, takes some cues from another of its services that hasn’t been hit as hard by regulators and detractors.
That said, the company has also gone the other way with it. Earlier this week, in fact, Facebook confirmed that Instagram will soon allow users to download their photos, videos, and other content. Facebook has offered a data download tool since 2010.
