By Jonathan O'Callaghan The battle of the instant messaging apps has taken a twist today after reports claim Facebook is working on a Snapchat rival. The tech giant - which famously tried to buy Snapchat earlier this year - already has its own Messenger app, but rumours suggest it is planning to release a video-chat service, called Slingshot, later this month. Like Snapchat, Slingshot would let users send short video messages by tapping the screen after selecting one or several contacts from their list of Facebook friends. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (pictured) is said to be preparing to take the site into a video-messaging war with rivals Snapchat and Vine. Rumours suggest the company has been working on a video-sharing app called Slingshot - and it might be released later this month
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Sources claim Facebook could release a video-messaging app 'this month'
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Dubbed Slingshot, it would be a direct competitor to Snapchat and Vine
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It would enable users to send brief videos to friends in a standalone app
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Move comes as Facebook's rivals revealed their own messaging services
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Vine Messages and Snapchat's Chat both threaten Facebook Messenger
At the start of April, @placeholder revealed its Vine Messages service that lets users send messages to each other.