Facebook standalone camera app tipped as users share less

Facebook's London-based 'friend-sharing' team is secretly working on a standalone camera app that would encourage users to share photos and videos on the social network, according to a pair of sources. The app will open directly to a camera, sort of like Snapchat, the sources say, and will involve Facebook's Live Video by enabling direct video livestreaming. However, the sources caution that the standalone app may never be released.

Such information comes from The Wall Street Journal, which says it received word from two unnamed people with knowledge of the project. The sources say the project is in its early stages, though of course Facebook hasn't confirmed its existence. As you'd expect, this new app is designed to encourage Facebook users to post original content, something that is very important to the company but that has been on a steady decline over past months.

Facebook users aren't posting personal statuses as often as they used to

This is a growing issue for Facebook, which is seeing a growing trend of users passively consuming other users' content, but not posting their own, resulting in a gradual skewing toward links leading elsewhere and less reason to stick with Facebook in general.

Many social network users are spreading out, electing to post their snippets of thoughts on Twitter, their photos on Instagram, their videos on Vine, and their fun personal stories directly to select friends. This leaves little reason to post on Facebook, though the social network can accommodate all those types of sharing and communication.

As it stands, the current Facebook app encourages browsing, not posting, opening up to the News Feed. Messenger, of course, encourages one-on-one communications, but not status updates. This new app, then, would fill that void by putting content creation front and center, encouraging people to create, not consume. Content created through this unnamed rumored app will also reportedly be shareable on Facebook's other properties including Instagram.

Of course, and as with many internal projects, Facebook may abandon the app, leaving it unofficial and away from the public. There's no indication of when it may launch if the company does proceed.

SOURCE: Wall Street Journal