 I'm Ellis with The Verge, and this is our first look at Facebook's Snapchat killer, Slingshot. Slingshot is a lot like Snapchat. A camera screen is the first thing you see when you open the app. Tap to take a photo and hold to take a video. You can caption your shots and even draw on them using various colors and brush sizes. Pick a few friends, hit sling, and your photo or video is sent. It all seems very familiar. Except in Slingshot, you can't view shots from friends until you send them a shot back first. By the end, their locked shots become unlocked and you can view them. The mechanic doesn't make much sense unless you think about Slingshot the way Facebook does, not as a messaging app like Snapchat, but as an app for status updates and for sharing casual photos and videos to lots of people at the same time. In this way, each shot is like a status update, but is also a nudge to get friends to show you what they're up to. Flipping through the feed of shots you've unlocked feels like an idealized version of Facebook where every shot is full screen and meant just for you. You can tap on one to take a quick reaction shot or make a text comment. And like Snapchat, every shot and reaction is gone forever once you've swiped it away. But like conventional status updates on Facebook, these posts don't feel urgent like texts or snaps since you can't view them on demand. So what's the real difference between the two ephemeral apps? Slingshot includes a select all button, something Snapchat diehards have been begging for. And Slingshot is certainly noisier. Slingshot's pay to play mechanic might be too confusing to get your friends to join. It feels weird to get a push notification for a message and be unable to read it until you take the time to share something back. And what if I have nothing to share? Facebook doesn't call Slingshot a messaging app, but it looks so much like Snapchat that it's easy to forget how you're supposed to be using Slingshot. Yet the app shows that Facebook isn't afraid to experiment with new ways to let you share, and new ways to incentivize sharing beyond Facebook proper.
 I'm Ellis with The Verge, and this is our first look at Facebook's Snapchat killer,
 Slingshot.
 Slingshot is a lot like Snapchat.
 A camera screen is the first thing you see when you open the app.
 Tap to take a photo and hold to take a video.
 You can caption your shots and even draw on them using various colors and brush sizes.
 Pick a few friends, hit sling, and your photo or video is sent.
 It all seems very familiar.
 Except in Slingshot, you can't view shots from friends until you send them a shot back
 first.
 By the end, their locked shots become unlocked and you can view them.
 The mechanic doesn't make much sense unless you think about Slingshot the way Facebook
 does, not as a messaging app like Snapchat, but as an app for status updates and for sharing
 casual photos and videos to lots of people at the same time.
 In this way, each shot is like a status update, but is also a nudge to get friends to show
 you what they're up to.
 Flipping through the feed of shots you've unlocked feels like an idealized version of
 Facebook where every shot is full screen and meant just for you.
 You can tap on one to take a quick reaction shot or make a text comment.
 And like Snapchat, every shot and reaction is gone forever once you've swiped it away.
 But like conventional status updates on Facebook, these posts don't feel urgent like texts or
 snaps since you can't view them on demand.
 So what's the real difference between the two ephemeral apps?
 Slingshot includes a select all button, something Snapchat diehards have been begging for.
 And Slingshot is certainly noisier.
 Slingshot's pay to play mechanic might be too confusing to get your friends to join.
 It feels weird to get a push notification for a message and be unable to read it until
 you take the time to share something back.
 And what if I have nothing to share?
 Facebook doesn't call Slingshot a messaging app, but it looks so much like Snapchat that
 it's easy to forget how you're supposed to be using Slingshot.
 Yet the app shows that Facebook isn't afraid to experiment with new ways to let you share,
 and new ways to incentivize sharing beyond Facebook proper.