Twitter introduces ‘Stickers’ in bid to ape Snapchat and snap out of growth plateau

Twitter’s growth might be slowing down and its shares tumbling after the latest results, but that is not stopping the company from adding new features to the app in order to boost engagement. After introducing a new Night Mode for Android users, Twitter now has ’Stickers’ that users can add to their pictures in order to make them more fun, engaging, and definitely more like Snapchat. Stickers appear when you are sharing a photo on Twitter’s mobile app, and just like on Snapchat you can place these at various points on a picture. The feature has gone live on iOS and Android, and you can drag these stickers on a photo before sharing.

Twitter made the announcement yesterday, with a tweet which said, “Now, everyone can use #Stickers on photos! Celebrate with us tomorrow as we #StickTogether.” The Snapchat-like feature comes as growth has stalled for the platform. Reports say Snapchat has more daily active users (DAUs) than Twitter, which should be worrying for the 10-year-old social network.

Twitter’s user base rose just 1 per cent in this quarter, and stood at 313 million average monthly active users in the second quarter. In Q1, the MAUs were at 310 million. Twitter has already been surpassed by Instagram when it comes to monthly active users (500 million), and daily active users (300 million). For Twitter, the other big problem is brand perception. A recent survey by the company showed that while 90 per cent of people knew about the brand Twitter, they had no clue on how to use it with many choosing not to use the service.

In Twitter’s blogpost, the company noted that people who don’t use Twitter were unable to understand what the product is for, with some wondering if they had to tweet everyday to use it. Since many felt they did not have a daily thought to tweet, they preferred not to use the service, showed the survey, which is obviously news the company wants to hear given its user engagement crisis.

Also read: Twitter reports slowest growth since 2013, shares fall

Of course, Twitter is not the only one copying Snapchat. Apple’s iOS 10 will see iMessage get Stickers as well, and the ability to draw on pictures, etc. Facebook for its part launched a Snapchat clone called Slingshot which didn’t do so well, and then later this year bought out the app MSQRD (Masquerade), which lets users add similar filters, do face swap, etc on Live Videos.

Check out their tweet below

Now, everyone can use #Stickers on photos! Celebrate with us tomorrow as we #StickTogether . pic.twitter.com/LOh2jygRno

— Twitter (@twitter) July 27, 2016