A timeline of Facebook copying Snapchat

Facebook Messenger launched a pair of neat new features this week, and among those was one that'll sound very familiar to any Snapchat user: Messenger now includes scannable codes that let you add another person as your friend. It was the latest in a long line of features that Facebook very clearly took inspiration from Snapchat on — The Next Web headlined its story about the launch: "Facebook Messenger just stole Snapchat’s best feature." Being Snapchat's "best feature" is perhaps arguable, but the point is that Facebook's source of inspiration here is hard to ignore.

Facebook has been trying to take down or take on Snapchat ever since the service started taking off, and time after time it's failed to do so. Here's a quick history of Facebook taking on Snapchat, from its early attempts to take it down to its more recent acceptance that it might have some good ideas worth borrowing.