A look and feel of the not so new Facebook Stories

Facebook has finally gone full circle with their obsession with Stories. Under the name Facebook Stories the feature is now available to Facebook Mobile users across the world starting today.

Facebook began their official blog post announcing Facebook Stories by saying, “We want to make it fast, fun and easy for people to share creative photos and videos with whomever they choose, for however long they choose — and the more we share with each other, the more open and connected our community can be.”

What they probably mean is, since you’re so infatuated with disappearing photos and face filters, use it on our platforms, not theirs (no prizes for guessing).

Facebook Stories will show up at the top of your News Feed where you can click on your friends’ Stories and watch them, similar to Instagram Stories. If you wish to upload a Facebook Story of your own, you can do so by tapping the Camera icon on the top left corner of the Facebook app, or swipe right from the News Feed, and click away.

Users can also send Facebook Stories to specific friends through Direct, which was designed to allow users to share pictures and videos with specific friends. It works exactly like Snapchat, where your friend can view the picture or video and reply with text, picture or video, and once they leave the conversation, the thread will cease to exist.

You can use masks, filters and other interactive effects that can be applied to your pictures which sounds, looks and feels similar to you know who. Also, you can choose to post your pictures and videos as a regular Facebook post at the same time as posting it on Facebook Stories.

The acquisition of MSQRD in June last year may have a lot to do with the face masks that Facebook Stories offer. The social networking giant may have been working promotional deals with a number of upcoming movies and their production houses, judging by the face masks and filters available.

Alien: Covenant, Despicable Me 3, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Power Rangers, Smurfs: The Lost Village and Wonder Woman are the movies that have dedicated face masks on Facebook Stories.

Wonder Woman lead star, Gal Gadot shared a video of herself with the Wonder Woman face mask on her official Facebook Page, urging her followers to try out the new feature, which benefits both Facebook and the upcoming Wonder Woman movie.

Also, Facebook has included guest art from well known artists such as Douglas Coupland and Hattie Stewart, and vow to feature new and fresh creative effects from time to time.

Conor Hayes, Facebook Product Manager writes, “The Instagram community has shown us that it can be fun to share things that disappear after a day, so in the main Facebook app we’re also introducing Facebook Stories, which lets you share multiple photos and videos as part of a visual collection atop News Feed.”

Stories or slightly different versions of it are now available on Facebook and all its subsidiaries as Instagram Stories, Messenger Day and WhatsApp Status, which indicates Facebook truly believes visual imagery to be the future of social sharing.

With Facebook Stories, the company hopes to usher in a new era of dynamic and fun ways of communication among users, and the colossal Facebook Community.

Conor Hayes appears enthusiastic at the prospect as he concludes the blog post with a picture of himself with his cat, Ebi, with a tropical face mask.