Can we have a moment, maybe two?

Can we have a moment, maybe two?
Two Facebook updates you need to know about
By Nick Singer
Facebook Moments is six months old and has now become one of the most downloaded photo apps for the iPhone.
 
The main features of Moments are:

• Instead of only scanning your existing Facebook albums, Moments pulls from the photos you store on your phone (with your permission of course). The app then combs through your camera roll and starts making groups of photos based on geotagging and who is in them from its face recognition software.
• Moments’ home screen focuses on sending photos to your Facebook friends. If one would like to share the photos with one of their friends, they can (ala Tinder) swipe right to create a Moment or swipe left and get rid of it.

• With any Moment, you can click and rename it to create an album. You can also see who is participating in the moment and share photos to the group.
• The Browse tab is an easy way to look at your sorted photos. You can click though photos you’ve taken of friends or browse based on location. It even has smart labels, so one can sort the selfies versus the group shots.
• And if your friends are slow to send you photos from the night before, you can now ask them via Moments.

 
Do I think Moments will take over the way we share photos now? Probably not, unless it’s forcefully integrated into the mobile app. The question that Facebook has to answer is: why would a user go out of their way to download another app when they can already post photos on their own Facebook? I don’t think that question has been answered, and with apps like Snapchat and Instagram already dominating the medium of instant “moments”, Facebook is playing catch up.
Facebook launches its own version of Twitter’s Moments, but just for sports
Facebook has launched Sports Stadium, a competitor to Twitter’s Moments but specifically aimed at sports. Stadium is part of the larger Facebook platform, but won’t have its own button. Instead, it is integrated so that users can get to Stadium just by searching for a game they’re interested in.

The four tabs featured on Stadium are:

• Matchup: A quick glance of what’s happening in real-time at the game, including a scoring summary and most recent plays (this includes videos as well), which users can like, comment on and share.
• Friends: Users can see if their Facebook friends are talking about the game or uploading game-related videos or photos.
• Experts: This tab is a series of game-related posts from verified Pages on Facebook (teams, leagues, athletes, journalists and other public figures, sports media, etc.) in real-time.
• Stats: A full layout of everything you need to know about any player throughout the game – from rushing yards to QBR it has it all.

 
The launch is tied to this weekend’s NFL Conference Championships, as well as Super Bowl 50, and is expected to expand to basketball, soccer and even more sports down the road.
Stadium is a fantastic answer to Twitter’s Moments when it comes to sports coverage. Personally, if I am trying to follow a game in real-time I go to Twitter and keep refreshing or wait for ESPN updates (I know…I am a Neanderthal when it comes to instant sporting news). Twitter Moments is still new and clunky, so for Facebook to come out now with Stadium (with the biggest sporting event in the U.S. coming up) is amazing timing on their part, plus it offers any sports fan what they want – getting to see stats, friends, and experts all in the same place.
Let me know what you think about Facebook’s latest updates in the comment section below or tweet me @nicksinger91.