Inspired by the Stories of his brother Instagram, which in turn had copied Snapchat, now Whatsapp also allows its users to share videos or snapshots for a period of 24 hours before disappearing.
It does so through the states of its users, more than 1.2 billion in the world, where they can use their cameras to interact visually with their contacts.
The status of Whatsapp was initially conceived as a platform where the user could share their availability to use the application with their contacts. With the integration of Status, the state becomes a space with more possibilities of multimedia.
It can upload photos, videos or GIF and, like Snapchat, the content is not necessarily public, but can be directed to individuals or specific groups.
The application recognizes that the new format is not exactly original.
Randall Sarafa, production manager at Whatsapp: «Obviously we are seeing a general adoption of this format throughout the industry. Our hope is that with this update people will discover new ways to share and consume media on WhatsApp as well.»
From its launch, the application will have a new tab marked as States in the main part of it. There one can choose to use the camera at the moment or import images from the gallery. Status points to a general trend in the instant messaging industry.
Jennifer Hakes, a Facebook Messenger spokeswoman, added: «In many ways, the camera is starting to replace the keyboard.»