Snapchat executive takes apparent swipe at Facebook over alleged feature 'copying'

Snapchat and Facebook have become engaged in a bitter technology war in recent months, with Facebook having seemingly placed Snapchat in its crosshairs through a range of feature updates to rival those Snapchat is best known for.

Instagram, WhatsApp and most recently Facebook Messenger have all introduced Story features identical to that at the centre of Snapchat, while WhatsApp and Instagram have both also upped their image editing features to enable users to drop text and emoji onto images.

These updates haven’t gone unnoticed in the tech world – but Snapchat itself has stayed silent on the matter. That is, until now.

When Kevin Weil, the head of product at Instagram, tweeted a picture of his young twins asking for followers to suggest captions for the amusing image, Snapchat executive Tom Conrad couldn’t help himself.

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In a since deleted reply, Snapchat vice president of product Conrad wrote: “‘Wait, it’s going to be *exactly* the same as Snapchat Stories????’”Burn.However, there is one more twist to this story. According to Axios technology correspondent Ina Fried, Weil told her that he and Conrad are in fact friends and that the exchange was a nothing more than a joke between the two. The initial back and forth didn’t stop fellow Twitter users from enjoying the moment.

At least humour appears to be alive and well in Silicon Valley.