Facebook Messenger debuts very thirsty, Snapchatty New Year’s Eve filters

Image: Ambar Del Moral/Mashable App notifications—they're bad! Actually the worst! Facebook doesn't care. It's urging users of Messenger, one of the social network's Snapchat clones, to open the app and enjoy a variety of "festive frames and stickers" this New Year's Eve. Open the app, and you'll see a circle at the bottom of your screen, emblazoned with "2017": Tap that and Snapch—er, Messenger's photo and video-taking feature will open. Some of them interact directly with your face: Others put some festive cheer around your can of "Pamplemousse" La Croix: Once you're done, you can send your photo or video to a friend, or many friends. Unlike Snapchat, they won't automatically delete themselves after they're viewed, and they can be forwarded, saved locally or transmitted to Facebook for sharing later. While Snapchat is considerably smaller than Facebook—150 million daily users versus 1.18 billion—it's designed for intimate sharing, and thus, it's edged in on an important part of Facebook's turf. So: Facebook copies Snapchat at every opportunity and blasts its users with annoying smartphone notifications to ensure everyone's aware of the new features. And that's how the war for your attention is waged moving into 2017