By now, we’ve probably gotten used to the fact that Facebook will come out with apps that are suspiciously similar to the current popular social media app. And then later on, when their app doesn’t catch on, they’ll just discontinue it. This is now the fate of the Bonfire app which was created to compete with the then-popular group video chat Houseparty. They will be shutting down Bonfire sometime this month and incorporate what they’ve learned into the other existing apps that the company owns.
You can be forgiven for forgetting that Bonfire exists. The app was created in response to Houseparty, a group video chatting app which was eating up the “precious” younger segment of the social media market. Bonfire started testing back in 2017 but somehow never really got out of that phase. And it didn’t even reach the US digital shores as the app started out in Denmark and then in other European countries.
The idea behind Houseparty was to have an online, virtual party with your friends outside of the usual social networks. You open the app and see who’s already online and then start your, well, house party. Facebook tried to replicate that with Bonfire but obviously, that never really caught on. According to The Verge, Facebook says that their learnings from the app will be incorporated into “current and future products”.
Group video chat is becoming more integrated into other Facebook products like Instagram and Messenger. We’ll probably see some of the Bonfire features added to either of the two or they might create another new product that will appeal to group video chatters but that would be another waste of time and resources.
As for Houseparty, it may not be as popular as two years ago, but apparently, it’s still there. The co-founder and CEO Ben Rubin has stepped down but another co-founder, Sima Sistani, is now running the show. They haven’t disclosed though how many current and active users they still have.
