Facebook experiment suggests it's trying to copy Snapchat again

Facebook appears to be working on yet another Snapchat-like experience. 

New screenshots of what look to be one of the social network's many experiments show the company is working on a new feature that allows groups of friends to privately share photos and other updates that disappear after 24 hours.

Called "quick updates," the experience was first noticed by Tiffany Zhong, an analyst at venture capital firm Binary Capital, though other users have reported seeing the test as well.

Quick updates lives in the main Facebook app behind the new smiley face icon in the top right corner of the app. From there, you  can add friends to groups so you can see each other's updates.

Updates can be text posts or photos and videos, and everyone in the group can see each other's updates. But all updates will disappear after a 24-hour window.

Why Facebook would make such an experience part of its main app is unclear. The company already has a standalone app for Groups and allows people to privately share photos with groups of friends with Moments. 

Our best guess is that the company is trying — yet again — to capture some Snapchat-like appeal. It's well-documented that Facebook has tried and tried to emulate Snapchat's success with various apps and services geared toward disappearing messages (remember Slingshot?) though none have been nearly as successful. 

It could also be that Facebook is looking to encourage its users to share more personal updates. A report in Bloomberg earlier this year claimed that Facebook users' personal sharing was on the decline and the company reportedly has a dedicated team to combat this problem.

In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson said Quick Updates was an old test and that it had no plans to roll out the feature to more people. “We often conduct small tests of new feature concepts, and this particular experience was an old test feature that was shown to some people.  We don’t have any plans to launch it more broadly.” 

Still, it offers an interesting look at how the company wants to encourage private sharing.