Facebook has announced that it is combining Messenger Day and Facebook Stories into one experience. The resulting feature is called, simply, Stories.
Facebook routinely tests, launches, shelves, and even combines features, so its latest move is no surprise. Facebook Stories, while not as popular as Instagram Stories is still working for people, and so Facebook is not shutting it down. Instead, it is extending the format to groups, events, and pages. On groups and events, Stories now also get collaborative, which is pretty cool, to say the least.
So, Messenger Day goes, but Stories stays and is extended – even onto Facebook Lite. With the new consolidated Stories experience, any photos or videos users add to their Stories will now appear both on Facebook and Messenger. The content will also be shared with “the same audience across both.”
Facebook wants to essentially give users the ability to share their Stories across platforms – after all, they were doing this manually. In this same move, Facebook is also getting rid of Direct. Now, all replies to Stories or Facebook Camera messages will go directly through Messenger. No need for more complexity, right?
The following privacy and sharing preferences are available to Stories, and they will be shared across Facebook and Messenger:
Public: Only Facebook followers, Facebook friends, and people with whom you’ve already chatted with on Messenger will see your Stories. If posting from Facebook, you will only have the option to share with Facebook followers.
Friends and Connections: Only Facebook friends and people you’ve chatted with on Messenger, but not necessarily Friends on Facebook, will see Stories on both platforms.
Friends Only: Only Facebook friends will see your Stories on both platforms. Those who you only chat to on Messenger will not see your Stories.
Custom: You can choose the people who you’d like to see your Stories on both platforms.
Hide Your Story From: Finally, you can also choose specific people you don’t want your Stories to be seen by, on both platforms.
Last but not least, Facebook also announced that Instagram Stories shared on Facebook, are also shared to Messenger by default. Confusing much? Yes, very! Thanks, Facebook.
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