After two years of producing apps that only saw a very niche following Creative Labs, an initiative or rather an “experiment” by Facebook, has pulled the plug. Creative Labs was a startup-like initiative that encouraged Facebook employees to design innovative and unusual software for mobile platforms, similar to Google’s rule of 20 (which let’s Google employees dedicate 20% of their work time to pursue side projects not related to their official job).
One such app produced by Creative Labs is Slingshot, an app meant to compete with Snapchat (it failed in that regard). Slingshot was different; before you could see images that someone had sent to you, you had to reply by sending an image yourself; it was the epitome of a give-and-take relationship. Also being pulled from app stores due to Creative Labs closing is Rooms, a group messaging service that attempted to bring about a resurgence of chat rooms, those things that were all the craze in the late 90s. Users could log into Rooms anonymously, without having to log in with a Facebook account, and post videos, text and pictures. To join a chat room, an existing member would have to send you an invitation that contained a QR code. It is being shut down on the 23rd of December.
To be fair, Facebook never gave hint that it expected a lot from Creative Labs, telling reporters it didn’t expect it’s 1 billion plus users to all sign up for the apps that came out of Creative Labs. This was further supported by the fact that Facebook never did any heavy advertising for the apps or Creative Labs itself. Furthermore Facebook is turning away from developing other apps as it seeks to give users of their Facebook app a much richer and diverse experience, having incorporated various features such as livestreaming and 360 degree videos into the platform.
A Facebook spokeswoman reiterated this in a statement: “Since their launches, we’ve incorporated elements of Slingshot, Riff and Rooms into the Facebook for iOS and Android apps,” adding that the Creative Lab apps hadn’t been updated in quite some time.
Facebook said it will still experiment with new apps, and support initiatives like its Paper newsfeed-reading app in addition to others like Instagram’s Hyperlapse video and Layouts photo editor.
