{"id":335338,"date":"2017-03-09T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1462164"},"modified":"2017-03-09T06:30:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T22:30:00","slug":"how-facebook-messenger-evolved-into-a-chat-camera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/how-facebook-messenger-evolved-into-a-chat-camera\/","title":{"rendered":"How Facebook Messenger evolved into a chat camera"},"content":{"rendered":"

A picture is worth a thousand words\u2026that no one wants to type on a tiny screen. And even if you did mash in all that text, it\u2019d still lose the subtleties of sarcasm or sincerity. To express the full range of emotion, messaging apps must put us face-to-face despite our distance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like to think of the camera as the new keyboard\u201d Facebook Messenger product manager Tony Leach tells me. So nine months ago, his team embarked on an ambitious project to redefine\u00a0the billion-user chat app\u00a0as a way to share images, not just words.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s manifested<\/a> as a shutter button on the Messenger home screen, over 5000 graphical filters and stickers you can add to photos and videos, and computer-generated art that turns any text into an overlaid illustration. Messenger even has its own Stories feature called Messenger Day<\/a>, which while currently only available in a few countries, is slated to roll out wider soon, including in the US.<\/p>\n

Messenger Day and that \u201ccamera as keyboard\u201d quote should be very familiar. The feature is another interpretation<\/em> of the Stories slideshow format Snapchat pioneered. And in Snap\u2019s IPO filing<\/a>, it described its philosophy, saying \u201cIn the way that the flashing cursor became the starting point for most products on desktop computers, we believe that the camera screen will be the starting point for most products on smartphones.\u201d<\/p>\n

But just as we don\u2019t still call every algorithmically-sorted feed a Facebook copycat, nor every chat service\u00a0an ICQ clone, visual communication is bigger than just Snapchat. No matter who popularized it, any messaging app that doesn\u2019t embrace the concept is doomed.<\/p>\n

[Correction: David Marcus and Tony Leach\u2019s names in this video are switched. David speaks first. This will be fixed soon]<\/p>\n

\u201cGradually as communications become more visual, we had to build a camera that\u2019s more powerful\u201d says Facebook\u2019s head of Messenger David Marcus.<\/p>\n

Getting Visual, Pixel By Pixel<\/h2>\n

Messenger first dipped its toes into the world of visual communication with the addition of Stickers<\/a> in 2013. At the time, the company was actually reluctant to build the feature, according to a source familiar with the development process. Facebook\u2019s leadership assumed Stickers were just a silly toy for kids and their popularity in Asia wouldn\u2019t translate to the West.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Facebook\u2019s Stickered app<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Surprise! Stickers were a hit. But they only appeared on the blank white background of your messaging threads. By 2014, Snapchat had proven the popularity of overlaying text, emoji, and drawing atop photos and videos. This collage style allowed people to not only show how they felt or what they were doing, but embellish and riff on it. Combining images, text, and symbols let people deliver a vivid yet nuanced idea instantly, opening up new opportunities for comedy.<\/p>\n

It was then in mid-2014 that Facebook got serious about the business of cloning. It launched an overly complicated Snapchat clone called Slingshot<\/a>, added a selfie camera<\/a> plus\u00a0text and drawing<\/a> overlays to Messenger, and launched a dedicated standalone app called Stickered<\/a> for adorning photos. Again, visual communication was a hit. Messenger\u2019s growth spiked, increasing from 200 million to 500 million users in just 7 months.<\/p>\n