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WhatsApp unveils Snapchat-style creative tools

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By Rebecca Stewart, Trends Editor

October 4, 2016 | 2 min read

Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp is the latest service that appears to have drawn inspiration from Snapchat – updating its camera features to allow users to customise their photos.

WhatsApp Snapchat Camera

WhatApp unveils Snapchat-style creative tools

Following in the footsteps of Instagram, which aped Snapchat's Stories feature earlier this year, the service has unveiled a host of new creative tools which will allow users to edit and doodle on their images. Announcing the news in a blog post, the company revealed it will also now let users overlay emojis and coloured text on top of snaps they've taken within WhatsApp.

Facebook Messenger joined sister app WhatsApp in hitting the one billion users mark back in July. The latter has recently ramped up what it can offer to brands, announcing that it will "coordinate" more with its parent company to do things like let businesses send messages to users, track basic metrics about how often people use its services and better fight spam.

Nothing has been announced about whether brands will be able to make use of WhatsApp's new creative features, but the move comes as social platforms increasingly move toward visual marketing, such as Twitter's Stickers and Snapchat's Lenses.

With Snapchat growing in popularity among young users, many social networks and messaging services, including Facebook itself, have emulated some of its key features in order to keep up.

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