Facebook is continuing to develop its offering and very often, we in Ireland get to be the guinea pigs for their new features. Over the coming days, Facebook users will notice the addition of "Facebook Stories" to the app, on both iOS and Android.  

In a short statement issued this afternoon, the social media giant laid out their reasoning for this particular feature. 

"Facebook has long been the place to share with friends and family, but the way that people share is changing in significant ways.  The way people share today is different to five or even two years ago — it's much more visual, with more photos and videos than ever before. We want to make it fast and fun for people to share creative and expressive photos and videos with whoever they want, whenever they want. We’ve been testing a new camera and the new Direct feature in Ireland since last October and Stories is another example of how we’re helping people share the way they want to."

Facebook Stories will allows us to share photos and videos with our friends, in the same way as Instagram Stories and Snapchat. These "stories" will then disappear after 24 hours. The option is there to share onto your newsfeed, should you so wish.

This sounds very much as though the Instagram Stories model is being applied to the world of Facebook.