Facebook Slideshow Movie Maker Goes up Against Apple, Google

Jun 28, 2016 01:36 PM EDT

Facebook is one innovative company that does not want to be left behind in the industry, and we have seen this through its savvy acquisitions such as WhatsApp on the instant messaging front, despite its own hugely popular Facebook Messenger. WhatsApp has recently hit a new milestone of achieving 100 million voice calls per day among its 1 billion plus users worldwide, and now we have received word that Facebook intends to up the ante with the introduction of its Facebook Slideshow movie maker.

This is an interesting development, and it shows that Facebook is more than well aware of what its industry rivals are doing. After all, Apple has its very own version of a slideshow app known as Memories that will debut on iOS 10 Photos, while Google and their Google Photos have its Movies Assistant to get the same job done under a different guise. Facebook’s naming convention of choice? Slideshow, which curiously enough, is rolling out to all iOS users worldwide.

As apps get smarter and mobile devices more powerful, it goes without saying that this would mean majority of the folks out there need not have to enrol at a computer software course to share their memories in the form of videos and slideshows, as with the case of Facebook's Slideshow. Slideshow was first launched in August, under the guise of Facebook's photo-sharing companion app that is known as Moments.

Slideshow then began to undergo testing with some users, where it was part of the Facebook app's status composer in December last year. Fast forward to today, if you have snapped more than five photos or shot an equivalent number of videos in the previous 24 hours and head to post a status, Facebook will "know" this, before proceeding with a suggestion that you come up with a Slideshow. Of course, if you happen to have friends who have already jumped aboard the proverbial bandwagon, you will come across the option to "Try It" when checking out a friend's Slideshow. 

This latest development effort from Facebook is more or less dummy-proof, as each Slideshow is automatically composed for you. It does so by merging both photos as well as videos, keeping them company alongside themed music and the relevant transitions. One will be able to have a hand at editing it, or to add or remove images, in addition to changing the theme to one of 10, where among them include Nostalgic, Playful, Night Out, Birthday, Epic, Thankful, Tropical, Bollywood and Amped. 

As Slideshow will "conjure" its end product from whatever material is made available, it looks set to step into Snapchat's Stories territory, showing the world the what you have been up to in the last 24 hours, where you do let your photos and videos do the talking as opposed to thinking of stuff to type. After all, doesn't a picture speak a thousand words? It does seem as though Facebook wants to arrest the slide in personal content sharing on their platform in recent years, as many users have decided to make the jump to Snapchat for that niche.