We can’t help but think we’ve seen Facebook’s new feature somewhere before

The new feature on Facebook sure does look awfully familiar.

Open up the Facebook app on your smartphone today (Tuesday) and you’ll probably notice something a little different. The ‘Direct’ button on the upper left hand side of your screen, for example, is one of a range of new features being rolled out by Facebook which aren’t entirely dissimilar from something you may have already noticed on a wildly popular social media app. With Facebook having already rolled out something similar to the story feature on Snapchat (something that has also been rolled out on Facebook-owned Instagram), ‘Direct’ is “designed for sharing individual photos and videos with specific friends for a limited time”. Original? Perhaps not. Seen anything like this before? “When you send a photo or video via Direct, your friends will be able to view it once and replay it or write a reply,” reads a release on Facebook’s Newsroom page. “Once the conversation on the photo or video ends, the content is no longer visible in Direct.” If that wasn’t too Snapchat-like, Facebook also revealed changes to its in-app camera, which now allows users to apply dozens of effects like masks, frames and interactive filters that you can apply to your photos and videos. You can read more details on the changes being rolled out by Facebook here.