Facebook is mimicking one of Snapchat's most popular features, Snapchat Stories, in its Messenger chat app. The new feature, called Messenger Day, launched exclusively in Poland today.

Snapchat Stories, for the unfamiliar, is a feature that lets users share photos, videos and drawings in a timeline that disappears after 24 hours. Messenger Day works almost exactly like Snapchat Stories, according to TechCrunch.

Where Messenger Day differs from Snapchat Stories and, for that matter, Instagram Stories, is how it prompts users to use the feature. At the top of the chat list are options to quickly share how you're feeling, what you're doing and more. This makes it easier to share something quickly with all of your friends instead of managing a curated friends list.

"We know that people come to Messenger to share everyday moments with friends and family," said a Facebook spokesperson speaking with TechCrunch. "In Poland we are running a small test of new ways for people to share those updates visually."

It's unclear whether Messenger Day will be available in other countries, though success in Poland may mean the feature could be released more widely.

This isn't the first time Facebook has copied Snapchat. The social network's photo sharing app, Instagram, aped Snapchat Stories by releasing Instagram Stories in August.

A smart strategy

According to TechCrunch, Facebook may have introduced Messenger Day to get users hooked on its Messenger app in hopes of preventing them from leaving to use Snapchat Stories. Facebook also has another chat app with 1 billion active users: WhatsApp. In order to keep people using its apps, Facebook has to bring popular features from competing platforms into its own.

It's also smart of Facebook to put a story feature in Messenger because its chat app is more intimate than its social network. By having Messenger Day inside a chat app, users don't have to worry about sharing the highest quality photos or videos on their Facebook wall.

Over the years, the social network has evolved into a place where users only share curated highlights about their lives instead of casually sharing thoughts and activities, something Snapchat excels at.

Facebook Messenger currently has over 1 billion active users, compared to Snapchat's 150 million. Using Messenger's immense reach, Messenger Day could prove to be a popular feature.

Chrome is about to get even more features thanks to experimental Bluetooth support. Soon, you'll be able to control Bluetooth devices inside Chrome, without the need to download an app.

Bluetooth support in Chrome is still in the early development stage, and we probably won't see any products support it for a while. However, Google's engineers have already showed off what Chrome can do with controlling smart home devices like the Philips Hue bulbs.

Check out the full Google Dev Summit presentation if you want to know all the technical details about how the Bluetooth API works.

The feature will work by allowing Bluetooth devices to communicate with Chrome and vice versa. The feature can work completely offline as well, so you won't need to navigate to a website to control your devices.

One of the big advantages of Bluetooth support in Chrome is that hardware makers can simply create one web app to work on multiple devices, instead of creating a specific Android and iOS app. This may even mean less popular operating systems like Windows Phone and Blackberry will get support for Bluetooth devices.

Google already has a beta version of Chrome that includes Bluetooth support for developers to experiment with, but it only works on ChromeOS and Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Mac and Windows support is coming later, and even Linux will get some love.

Via: Android Police

Top image credit: François Beaufort | Screenshot

Twitter has just announced that it is testing a new feature on Periscope that allows broadcasters to sketch as they stream.

In a Periscope stream of the beta test, which Twitter user Matt Navarra posted, we see a live broadcast in progress with the broadcaster being able to sketch basic line drawings via touch. The sketch is up for a few seconds before fading away, leaving the screen blank again as the broadcast continues.

The feature is only available to broadcasters for the moment, and not to viewers of the Periscope. We can only guess at what the most-drawn object would be if that were the case! (Hint: penises for days.)

A Twitter spokesperson told us, "We're testing Sketching with a small group of people. This feature makes it fun and easy for broadcasters to draw on the screen while broadcasting. Coming in a few weeks for everyone!"

So, expect to see your Periscopes to get a bit more interesting in just a few weeks. Speaking of, take a look at what social networks may look like in VR:

• Twitter will soon be live-streaming sports to your screen