So turns out Facebook had a poke and a camera app, yeah news to me too, don’t get too excited though. This article is about the two apps being axed not introduced. Farewell Snapchat and Instagram competitors.
Facebook has officially killed off two of its apps, I’m making assumptions here but if I’d never heard of them I’m willing to bet a large majority of us hadn’t. Facebook really should have invested more in advertising if it didn’t want to end up giving the death sentence, after some research it seems both apps were aimed to be Facebooks competition (rip-offs) for the far more successful Snapchat and Instagram.
Although both apps are officially gone from Apple’s App Store, Facebook Camera still exists for the time being on the Facebook landing page. The app allowed users to quickly take and upload pictures to Facebook, in addition to viewing photos that their other friends created in one easy-to-manipulate location, essentially Instagram.
You may have noticed if recently uploading photos via your phone that the app’s core functionality has been replicated within Facebook’s normal iOS app, including the ability to apply filters to photos after you’ve taken them. This has essentially rendered the standalone app obsolete.
Read Also: Facebook Messenger to be removed from the Facebook App
Not to forget Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billion in early 2012, what’s odd is that Facebooks Camera’s launch arrived post acquisition making them their own competition.
As for Facebook Poke, the app launched after Snapchat which had already gained a lot of momentum and fast became the go to place for people who wanted to send pictures that delete themselves. Facebook never revealed how many people were using the app. Snapchat, on the other hand, now says that more than 700 million bits of content are sent using the service each day.
Facebook has taken down the accompanying page on its website describing Facebook Poke — “a simple and fun way to say hello to your friends,” read Facebook’s now-deleted description.