News by: Jeff Causey 16th Jan 2014
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said “in the future, we expect to develop more of these services to help people share” in reference to separate apps like Instagram and Messenger. It appears that Zuckerberg dropped a big clue to the company’s 2014 strategy even though many glossed over the comment when it was made, a move to unbundle some of the buried features in Facebook and turn them into standalone apps.
Sources indicate Facebook’s developers are working on unbundling features and functions that Facebook offers to make them more friendly, and hopefully more used, on mobile platforms. The company has had mixed success in this area. Instagram is seen as Facebook’s standalone photo app and has proven to be quite popular, especially amongst younger users who have moved on from the main Facebook platform. The Messenger app received an overhaul this past year, including elimination of much of Facebook’s branding, and is reportedly the most used messaging app in the U.S. On the iOS platform, Messenger moved into the number one slot over the holidays, topping apps like Instagram, Snapchat and others. Facebook has also seen its share of flops with apps like Poke and Camera failing miserably.
Going forward, one area where Facebook may look at unbundling is a “personalized newspaper” type app that is separate from the main Facebook app. Facebook has indicated their data shows users want more breaking news stories. At the same time, they claim most of their users do not use RSS readers or even Twitter. To be able to compete with “personalized newspaper” apps like Pulse, Flipboard, or Circa, Facebook has started to intersperse news into users news feeds. However, this may not work well when posts from friends are mixed in with news on mobile platforms. Thus, the company appears to be planning to launch a newsreader type app in the near future.
A couple other areas that could hold promise for Facebook is in the area of calendars and search. Facebook already has some supporting infrastructure in place for both of these functions. Facebook Events is a popular way for users to share personal invites, yet it does not integrate well with other calendars and is littered with stuff like “Sponsored Events” and suggested parties. A standalone app that focused on helping users manage their calendars while also helping them keep up with things like friends’ birthdays could prove popular and useful. Facebook also introduced their Graph Search product on the desktop, yet has not made it available on mobile platforms. A separate mobile search app that uses data from friends could prove popular, especially when searching for restaurants or things to do.
