In a direct threat to Snapchat, India's first home grown messaging app hike messenger on Thursday rolled out three new features - - Stories, a built - in camera and live filters - - and withdrew "Timeline" feature that was rolled out last year.
"Stories is a new way for people on hike to share their lives and real moments with their friends through photos and videos, " Kavin Mittal, Founder and CEO of hike messenger, said in a statement.
These stories vanish after 48 hours after being posted.
In the "story" feature, a user can see how many people and who all have viewed that particular story, unlike the "loves" that was featured on "timeline" feature.
hike also launched its own built - in camera into the app.
It also announced the "live filters" feature that uses hike's camera to automatically detect and recognise a user's face using machine learning.
hike has 12 live filters, including one that changes a user's face to Narendra Modi.
"In honour of our prime minister who is doing all the great work, we launch the Live Filter of Narendra Modi, " Mittal added.
"One of our goals for 2016 has been to bring photos at the centre of hike and stories and live filters, we are doing just that.
I really believe camera is the new keyboard, " he added.
These features are being rolled out from Thursday across Android and iOS platforms.
- - IANS
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