Oh look, another Facebook app—this time Messenger—is adding its own version of Snapchat’s popular Stories feature, where photos you post to a feed get automatically deleted after 24 hours. Facebook did a good job adding Stories to Instagram, but they’re potentially a less natural fit for some of their other apps.
So, let’s look at what Facebook “Messenger Day” is and what it does if, for some strange reason, you need another Snapchat clone in your life.
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The Basics: Photos Disappear After 24 Hours
Like the Stories features in Snapchat and Instagram, Messenger Day is a photo feed where every image you post stays visible to your friends and followers for 24 hours—a single day. After that, it vanishes. Unless you’ve saved the image separately, it’s gone for good.
These auto-deleting feeds have struck a chord with a lot of teens and millennials. In a world where almost everything you do is tracked, recorded or archived in some way, it’s nice occasionally when photos just vanish of their own accord.
Facebook has given Messenger Day a prominent position in the Messenger app. Small thumbnails of your friends’ posts appear at the top of the message list. To view someone’s Messenger Day, just tap their thumbnail.
So far, very few of my friends have actually started using it, preferring to stick with Snapchat or Instagram, but your friend group may differ.
How to Post to Messenger Day
Facebook is actively encouraging people to use Messenger Day, so posting to it from the Messenger app is easy. Either tap the Add to Messenger Day button or the circle at the bottom of the screen. This brings up Messenger’s camera.
Any time you share a photo in a private chat, you’ll also be given the opportunity to add it to Messenger Day. You can also post photos from your phone.
The Messenger camera works much the same as any of the other social network cameras. You take a photo by tapping the shutter button and then you can add various effects, filters, text, emoji and the like.
Messenger Day doesn’t have Snapchat’s most compelling feature, the virtual reality Lenses, but it’s otherwise pretty comparable.
When you’re ready to post your photo, tap the arrow. Messenger Day will automatically be selected. You can save the photo to your phone by selecting Camera Roll. You can also send the photo as a message to any of your friends. Tap Send and the photo will be posted.
Your photo is now live. Your Facebook friends who have the Messenger app will see it at the top of their app and be able to view it for 24 hours.
