Instagram on Thursday announced a new messaging feature, called Instagram Direct, that adds a more private element to the photo-sharing app.

With this new feature, will Instagram now go head to head with Snapchat?

The two apps have many more similarities than they did even 12 hours ago, and it appears Facebook is hoping Instagram can compete with Snapchat. (Don't forget, Snapchat turned downa reported $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook just last month, $2 billion more than Facebook spent on Instagram.)

How closely do the photo-sharing apps match up? We've done a side-by-side comparison, Instagram on the left, Snapchat on the right.