Facebook’s rumored—and briefly released—ephemeral messaging app Slingshot finally debuted for real Tuesday. The app, which is now available in the App Store and on Google Play,
promises to give Facebook users the fun, fleeting messaging mayhem of
competitor Snapchat, but with one quirk: You can’t see a message from a
friend until you reply back to them.
Like Snapchat, after logging in with your phone number, Slingshot
lets you send self-destructing photos and videos, which you can draw or
annotate upon. You can then “sling it” to one or more friends (which you
can find using Facebook, if you choose). They can choose to swipe the
message away without seeing the message at all, or they can reply back
to unlock the mysterious shot they’ve been sent.
This move could make the app extremely sticky, like Poking used to be
on Facebook’s website: “Well, I can’t just let that Poke sit there,
I’ve got to Poke them back!” (Unfortunately Facebook’s attempt at
translating this success to mobile failed; Facebook killed the Poke app
in early May.) But others may not appreciate feeling “forced” to reply
back in one of these conversations just to see the message someone sent.
I could see originally entertaining threads dwindling into a series of
pained “No seriously, don’t reply back to this” messages that go on ad
infinitum.
Slingshot also represents Facebook’s
latest attempt to break up the components of its online platform into
separate, single-serving mobile apps, a la Google. There’s Facebook
Messenger, for chatting; Facebook’s Paper, for reading and discovering
new content; Facebook, for staying up to date on friend’s activities and
sharing your own; and the failed Facebook Poke and Facebook Camera
apps (now replaced by Instagram). Unlike Google though, Facebook’s app
divergence features a lot of overlap. Now, if you want to chat with a
friend, you can choose to mention them on Facebook, send them a direct
message in Messenger, tag them in an Instagram photo, or send them an
ephemeral message in the new app Slingshot.
With Slingshot, Facebook obviously hopes to target the youthful masses who shun The Social Network for newer alternatives. But will it instead just add to the confusion of an already bloated messaging network?
