Facebook is the dominant social networking platform, and it keeps reminding its rivals of this from time to time. Following Twitter’s recently launched Periscope, a video streaming app, Facebook has now announced a fun video making app called Riff.
Fun videos with Facebook Riff
Facebook product manager Josh Miller announced Riff on Wednesday and detailed the usefulness of the app. Miller informed readers that users and their friends will be able to enjoy video making with this app. Using the feature, video clips of less than 20 seconds can be made by anyone who can then use a single hashtag topic to define it.
The friends of the video creator will not only be able to view it but also add clips of their own. Miller says “A potential pool of creative collaborators can help a short video become an inventive project between circles of friends.” Also Facebook gives you (maker of the first clip) the right to delete any of the clips added by friends which you do not find appropriate. Also if the creator finds the clip from friends to be offensive, then he or she can report the same to the company.
One drawback of the feature is that it doesn’t allow people to like or comment on the video. Also there are reports claiming that the app does not allow for editing videos and even restricts importing videos form a phone’s memory.
Rising interest in video apps
Riff suggest the social network’s keen and growing interest in native videos. Several video applications already exist, such as Vine, Periscope and Instagram video, but the fun concept of Riff makes it unique.
The success of Riff will depend to a large extent on whether or not users are finding it fun to create videos using this app. However, its availability on both Apple’s iPhone and Android phones already gives it an advantage over a few competing apps, including Periscope.
The ALS Ice Bucket challenge, which helped Facebook grow video views 50% from May to July 2014, was the inspiration for Riff, said Miller. Initially, the app supports only 15 languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese and Polish.
