While there are still a lot of people logging on to Facebook, apparently there has been a steady increase in “passive behavior” on the social network. Insiders are now saying, that in an attempt to get people creating and sharing again, the social media giant is playing around with a prototype of a stand-alone camera app. While projects like this don’t often come to fruition, it would still be interesting to wait and see if this will go anywhere.
The main purpose of the alleged app is to enable and encourage users to take more pictures (as if people need more encouragement to take selfies and food porn pics) and videos, and then of course share them on the app itself or on Facebook. The early prototype will supposedly have a disappearing feature like with Snapchat, as well as the ability to do live streaming while recording a video.
Facebook will not admit that the level of sharing on their social media platform is declining. In fact, a spokesperson said that it is still “similar to levels in prior years.” But there is a growing trend towards content consumption, but not necessarily content creation. They have previously tried with other stand-alone apps like Slingshot (which is basically like Snapchat) and Camera, which allowed users to edit photos and then share them. But neither app clicked, so this may be an attempt to combine the two and have better features.
If ever the app comes into play, the challenge would be to actually get people to download another new app that’s part of the Facebook family, and then for them to actually use it. There was some resistance when they forced us to download a separate Messenger app, but now it looks like people have gotten used to it.
VIA: Wall Street Journal
