Facebook adds disappearing images to mobile app

Facebook has brought Stories and disappearing photos and videos - two popular Instagram features - to its mobile app.

A new update gives users the ability to post a series of images and videos to a Story, which will then be visible to their friends for 24 hours. 

The second new feature, known as Direct, makes it possible to share picture and video content directly with individual friends. These are also time-sensitive, in that friends will be able to view it once, replay it, or write a reply. The content disappears once the conversation on the photo or video ends.

In addition, Facebook has added a camera directly to the main app, complete with filters and other effects to add to images.

This is the latest effort from Facebook to roll popular features from its other apps - Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger - into its main app. Their introduction comes following the success of similar offerings on Snapchat, and Facebook is likely hoping to attract users who share video and images heavily on Snapchat back to the platform.