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.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
(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.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
July 13 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include new TSA rules, FEMA cuts, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy complimenting Donald Trump's new wardrobe
-
5 weather-beaten cartoons about the Texas floods
Cartoons Artists take on funding cuts, politicizing tragedy, and more
-
What has the Dalai Lama achieved?
The Explainer Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader has just turned 90, and he has been clarifying his reincarnation plans
-
Nvidia hits $4 trillion milestone
Speed Read The success of the chipmaker has been buoyed by demand for artificial intelligence
-
X CEO Yaccarino quits after two years
Speed Read Elon Musk hired Linda Yaccarino to run X in 2023
-
Musk chatbot Grok praises Hitler on X
Speed Read Grok made antisemitic comments and referred to itself as 'MechaHitler'
-
Disney, Universal sue AI firm over 'plagiarism'
Speed Read The studios say that Midjourney copied characters from their most famous franchises
-
Amazon launches 1st Kuiper internet satellites
Speed Read The battle of billionaires continues in space
-
Test flight of orbital rocket from Europe explodes
Speed Read Isar Aerospace conducted the first test flight of the Spectrum orbital rocket, which crashed after takeoff
-
Apple pledges $500B in US spending over 4 years
Speed Read This is a win for Trump, who has pushed to move manufacturing back to the US
-
Microsoft unveils quantum computing breakthrough
Speed Read Researchers say this advance could lead to faster and more powerful computers