“Disappearing-messaging app Snapchat, which turned down a $3 billion takeover offer from Facebook in 2013, is now trying to act more like Apple,” Jennifer Booton reports for FOXBusiness.
“The company rolled out a new chat service that bears a liking to Apple’s iOS FaceTime service on Thursday, an effort to dive deeper into the mobile messaging market already dominated by Apple, Google, Facebook and WhatsApp,” Booton reports. “Rather than a one-sided disappearing conversation — which has been the basis of Snapchat from the beginning, where a person sends a picture with text and painted images to any number of friends to be viewed at a later time — the new chat service allows the user to chat face-to-face in a real time video stream (sound familiar?).”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple leads. The rest follow at a distance. As usual.
MacDailyNews Note: Changed “knocks off” to “mimics” as per G4Dualie’s suggestion below.
MDNs headline makes it sound as though Snapchat “killed off” FaceTime. Why don’t they just say, copied FaceTime?
It says knock off which is the same as copying except knock off is generally used when it’s exactly the same
I know that, but give me some credit for pointing out the obvious. Knock off has different meanings.
I don’t think it really does… Unless you’re saying your cat knocks off everything on your dresser every morning. But knock-off is pretty much only ever used to mean ‘counterfeit’
It’s a generational thing I suppose, knock off also means to kill someone, in gangster vernacular.
I’m old enough to remember people being knocked off.
They won’t have a easy time competing with Appke’s FaceTime or MS Skype. Oh, android might just be the right OS for them, but only if the app is free.
Snapchat actually is in a much better position than Skype, although I’m not sure they can really compete with FaceTime. Skype is a lot more hassle to deal with, whereas the key demographics for Snapchat already use it like crazy. I can imagine that this will work out very well for Snapchat, much moreso than competing social networking/messaging services.
nothing wrong with legitimate competition.
Slavish mimicry isn’t competition. It’s wanton theft.
note the word “legitimate” in my post.
I’m not sure how Snapchat launching a video chat service is them knocking off Apple and FaceTime. Other companies offer competing services yet Apple is singled out as being knocked off? Sounds like link bait to me.
Yep, mentioning Skype would have been more accurate.
I was Skyping with family in Canada long before FaceTime appeared.
Lets look at what makes Apples FaceTime different.
First of all, Apple provided face-to-face video calling without the extra text features that the desktop competition had been doing, such as Skype. By this, Apple streamlined the interface and simplified the function and purpose for the application.
Secondly, Apple provided this software on a mobile device; on the iPhone. Where the competition wasn’t even available. Others fallowed Apple. And this is what Snapchat is doing now. Stripping down the complexity and leaving the essentials – coping or knocking-off Apples FaceTime.
Oh and by-the-way, iChat, Apples Desktop – text, talk and see application was created before Skype. iChat was a fantastic application far ahead of its time; it just never caught on. Possibly due to only being for Apple computers. Apple chose to simplify iChat into two separate apps for the mobile market.