Superciliously complimenting Apple’s new features for iMessage in iOS 8 unveiled at the WWDC 2014, Co-founder and CEO of WhatsApp, Jan Koum tweeted, “Very flattering to see Apple ‘borrow’ numerous WhatsApp features into iMessage in iOS 8 #innovation”
Koum didn’t specify any update in particular, but it’s evident that he was referring to the new features to insert video and audio, along with location tagging in conversations, which are already available in instant messaging services like WhatsApp and Telegram.
However, Apple hasn’t adopted features from WhatsApp, but also from Snapchat with its new self-destruct feature. Apple, in the presentation, showed that the message attachments can self-destruct, unless the iDevice user chooses otherwise.
Snapchat, on the contrary to Koum, had a more diplomatic response: “It’s exciting to see other companies begin to embrace deletion by default,” a representative for Snapchat said in an email.
According to TechCrunch, the new features similar to WhatsApp and Snapchat indicate the Apple’s awareness towards customers’ desires. The company is likely following a strategy of incorporating the proven features from standalone providers in platform-level services for best experience.
However, it’s not just the iMessage service, but also the iCloud service that notice familiar features. Apple has introduced iCloud Drive, similar to Dropbox, Google Drive and Box. The new iCloud Drive will also auto-backup photos from smartphones, a feature already available with Microsoft’s OneDrive.
Dropbox representative said the company has “nothing to share at this time,” while Box CEO tweeted stating “Apple taking open approach to cloud storage! Huge move.”
