Product Hunt Daily Digest
November 18th, 2019

Facebook’s new experiment: memes

Facebook is launching apps left and right. Last week we wrote about the company’s two new experimental apps, AUX and Bump. Now Facebook has quietly launched Whale, an ad-free meme maker.

Whale lets users overlay texts and effects over their own images or images from the app’s stock photo library. The idea is that users will then share their meme creations on other Facebook apps (like Instagram, Messenger or WhatsApp). Whale is currently only available in Apple’s Canadian App Store. If you’re in Canada, tell us what you think. 👀

All three of these apps came out of the company’s ‘New Product Experimentation’ (NPE) team, a group building consumer-facing apps to test out new ideas. AUX and Bump have reportedly not gained any traction yet, and Facebook says that all of these experimental apps could potentially shut down. FWIW, Facebook has been doing this type of thing for years — Moments, Notify, Lifestage, Slingshot, Moves and Hello have all shut down. 👋

Facebook is testing in public in order to identify new services that people might like, especially among younger crowds. In particular, it seems Facebook is fighting to stay relevant in the age of TikTok (don’t forget about Facebook’s own TikTok competitor Lasso).

The Whale App
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