Facebook jumps on the video app bandwagon with Riff
You can already message your friends, pay your friends, play Words With Friends, and e-stalk your friends on Facebook. And now, you can even make videos with friends.
Facebook launched its new collaborative video app, Riff, yesterday. The app is inspired by last summer's social media campaign for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which inspired millions to create and share videos that went on to dominate Facebook newsfeeds worldwide.
Riff allows users to make videos with friends, which are organized by a topic or theme. As friends add their own video clips to Riff, the network grows. Their friend list can then also view the videos and contribute their very own 20-second clips.
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(Facebook)
"The potential pool of creative collaborators can grow exponentially from there," said Facebook product manager Josh Miller, "A short video can become an inventive project between circles of friends that you can share to Facebook, or anywhere on the internet, at any time."
Though it's only been one day, customer reviews have been mixed, with praises for its unique concept, but many complaints of long loading times and poor design. One reviewer described it as a "kind of weird video app," while another was more succinct, describing it with just two words: "really dumb."
Riff is available on iOS and Android in more than 10 languages.
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