Now, WhatsApp copies Snapchat with its new 'Status' feature

And Snapchat’s international growth may eventually slow down, thanks to WhatsApp’s launch of ‘WhatsApp Status’.

In lieu of its 8th birthday on February 24, 2017, the instant messaging platform introduced a new feature for sharing photos, videos and GIFs that disappear after 24 hours. Similar to the text messages, this too will be encrypted end-to-end. This feature is rolling out worldwide on iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

Similar to Snapchat, WhatsApp stories will be posted via an in-app camera. After clicking the picture, you can doodle over the image, add text and emojis too. Once you’ve published the story, it will appear as a new “status” tab, wherein your contacts can view it for 24 hours. Users can watch these updates from friends and replay them too.

Jan Koum, CEO & Co-Founder, WhatsApp says, “Just like eight years ago when we first started WhatsApp, this new and improved status feature will let you keep your friends who use WhatsApp easily updated in a fun and simple way. From all of us at WhatsApp, we hope you enjoy it!”

WhatsApp is the latest product by Facebook to clone Snapchat Stories. Instagram was the first service to introduce Stories in August last year. It was followed by Facebook Messenger and then Facebook itself. WhatsApp Status also opens up an all new opportunity for the service to finally monetize. It could offer advertising and offer full-screen ads in-between friends’ Statuses.

WhatsApp currently has 1.2 billion monthly active users, posting over 50 billion messages a day along with 3.3 billion photos, 80 million animated GIFs and 750 million videos posted on the platform each day.