INQUISITR.COM / Science & Tech

Facebook To Build A Standalone Camera App Similar To Snapchat, One Touch Photo And Video Sharing

By Jinger Jarrett
Published on: 06:18 PST, Apr 29, 2016

Facebook continues to make changes to its tools in order to attract more advertisers to its platform. Many of the changes have come to Messenger, but the latest changes Facebook is reported to be making is a camera app similar to the one seen in Snapchat.

CNBC reported that Facebook is developing the standalone camera app in order to increase user engagement on the social site. The app is being developed by the “friend-sharing” team in London, and right now, it is only in its early stages, so it may never be deployed by Facebook. In addition to the standalone camera app, Facebook is also developing the ability for users to record video through the app to begin live streaming.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Facebook continues to add new features to its messenger service to increase user engagement and allow users to do more things. The latest feature allows users to upload files directly from Dropbox. Other features that are being developed include chat bots, which allow businesses to answer simple questions and automate the answers.

Facebook plans to add a wallet to Messenger to compete with other major wallets like Google and Samsung although it will take longer to develop this feature since it takes some time to integrate all the major credit card companies and prepare for compliance. Users can currently send money from within the messenger service, and Facebook eventually plans to make their messenger app an everything app so it replaces many of the apps smartphone users currently use.

The Economic Times reported that Facebook plans to allow one-click sharing of both photos and videos. This is another feature of the standalone camera app that Facebook currently is reported to have in development. Right now, the app is just a prototype and has not been released for full-scale distribution to Facebook users.

The Facebook app differs from the Instagram app even though it requires users to go through several steps before posting a photo. The chances of success for the app are much higher if it is tightly integrated with one of Facebook’s latest features, Live Mobile Streaming. Currently, this feature is trending on Facebook.

Facebook is seeking to compete with companies like Snapchat, which offers an image sharing app. In 2014, Facebook acquired Instagram, another company that offers image sharing.

Gizmodo predicted that Facebook’s plans to create the standalone camera sharing app won’t win fans back. Since users aren’t sharing as much about their lives on Facebook as they used to, the camera app would be an attempt to bring users back to Facebook. An unconfirmed report said that the announcement came at the same time that the Information released a report saying that Facebook is experiencing a 21-percent decline in sharing on its social platform.

Facebook claims there has been no decline among users sharing on their platform. Sharing refers to site users posting status updates, photos, and other original media. Facebook also insisted that as users friends’ list grow larger, users are less likely to share more of their personal information.

The reports of Facebook to build a new app comes as their latest attempt to capture a larger market share, and they have closely followed the growth of Snapchat. Facebook tried to acquire Snapchat in 2013 for $3 billion. After creating Slingshot, which was a massive failure, Facebook has looked for more ways to maintain its market lead and stay competitive.

[Photo by Pixabay]

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