Facebook has tried to copy Snapchat for years.
But during the past year Facebook has gone into overdrive, blatantly, systematically and often successfully, cloning Snapchat's core features.
The result is that Facebook's family of standalone apps — Instagram, Messenger, core Facebook, and even WhatsApp — look much more like Snapchat than they did one year ago. And Zuckerberg now believes that the future of how people communicate on Facebook will be through the phone's camera — a concept Snapchat pioneered.
Here are all of the ways that Facebook has copied Snapchat so far:
SEE ALSO: The best Snapchat tips, tricks, and secret hacks
One of the first indications that Facebook was wading into Snapchat's territory was in March 2016, when it acquired the app MSQRD. The app let you swap faces with goofy effects, similar to Snapchat's "Lens" filters.
Source: Business Insider
Then, in April, Facebook added scannable Snapchat-like QR codes for profiles in Messenger.
Source: Business Insider
Facebook's attack on Snapchat culminated with a battle cry Mark Zuckerberg gave to employees during an all-hands meeting in the summer.
Zuckerberg said "the camera is the composer" during an all-hands meeting with Facebook employees over the summer, according to someone familiar with the meeting.
The statement was an obvious nod to Snapchat, which recently rebranded itself as "Snap Inc., a camera company," but since day one has prioritized photo and video messages in its app.
During Facebook's quarterly earnings call in October, Zuckerberg explained that Facebook now sees the camera as the future of how people share and communicate.
"In most social apps today, a text box is still the default way we share," he said. "Soon, we believe a camera will be the main way that we share."
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