Facebook is clamoring for a slice of the video-sharing apps market alongside popular networks like Vine and Snapchat. They released their new app, Riff – Make Videos With Friends, on April 1st but despite the playfulness of the app, it’s no joke.
Riff allows users to record 20-second videos, tag them and share them with the world. Videos are public, and the best ones will be featured on the main screen. Sounding like a slightly less brief version of Vine? There’s a (small) twist.
The app’s unique selling point is the fact that your friends can add their own videos to the end of your clips, creating ever-longer ‘riffs’ of related content. Like Snapchat’s ‘stories’ feature but with a more collaborative swing.
The third video response in a story – or ‘riff’ – about balance
Facebook has tried this kind of thing before with its photo and video sharing network Slingshot. Never heard of it? We’re not surprised – it sunk for the most part without trace, and Facebook will be hoping that second time’s the charm with Riff.
The app release comes just days after Twitter released its live video streaming app Periscope, which in turn follows on from the exceedingly similar Meerkat.
It seems all the big social networks are trying to get in on the popularity of video sharing at the moment, but is the market big enough to sustain all these new platforms? Facebook will have to hope that users cotton on fast to the story-building aspect of these videos if they hope to create a successful network of viral content.
You can download Riff for free on the App Store.
Further reading: 24 hours with Twitter’s Periscope