Commentary

Does Facebook Need Another Messaging App?

In its ongoing battle to take back teen market share from Snap, Facebook is apparently readying a new messaging app for younger users.

Citing code contained inside of the Facebook’s flagship app, The Information says it can tell that just such an app is in the works.

Named Talk, the app will supposedly give parents the power to shape their kids’ chat circles.

To keep its social edge, Facebook is swinging at Snap with everything it’s got. Indeed, the social giant has even resorted to stealing Snap’s more popular features.

Last summer, the tech titan added a Stories section to Instagram's app, while, more recently, Facebook added ‘Stories’ to its flagship app.

Facebook also recently added “face filters” to Instagram. As such, among other Snapchat-like filters, Instagram users can now augment their selfies with swirling math equations, a wreath of flowers and furry koala ears.

Already, Facebook has had huge success with its main Messenger service. As of April, Messenger was made up of more than 1.2 billion monthly active users.

Facebook is also investing significant resources into Instagram’s own messaging feature, Direct. Among other efforts, Direct was recently streamlined to present users’ permanent and disappearing messages in one thread.

Since its last update in late 2016, the number of people using Direct has grown from 300 million to 375 million, as of July.

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