Here’s an interesting update from Facebook. In an attempt to win back younger audiences, and relegate TikTok to the side, it’s introducing what it calls the ‘Creative App Platform’ for Facebook Stories. With it, developers will now be able to create and promote Stories-related apps directly within the function’s ecosystem.
App developers who’ll be participating in the program will be able to acquire the new tools through the Stories Composer Flow, enabling them access to more creative apps for their Stories. What this means is that developers no longer need to go off-platform in order to find decent material. The added creative element, in turn, also improves the overall engagement factor of Stories, further propelling it as a key indicator of platform performance.
As per Facebook:
“We worked to understand how Sharing to Stories could further support the unique needs of our creative app partners. We found that app discovery is a key issue – in a competitive and rapidly expanding market, it is expensive and difficult for our partners to reach the people that continue to find joy from their apps. In response, we’ve built the Creative App Platform – a new concept that allows people to discover creative apps directly in Facebook Stories.”
Concept-Derived
The premise that drives the ‘Creative App Platform’ is very similar to Snapchat’s Minis offering, which enables developers to share what are essentially ‘miniature’ versions of their apps within Snapchat; think of them as being ‘Super-Lite’ versions of full apps. It adds yet another creative layer to private Snaps, providing more tools and add-on options to drive even more engagement.
So if Snapchat Minis are focused on Snaps, Facebook’s ‘Creative App Platform’ is focused on Stories, specifically towards providing it with more creative add-ons. The first phase of the new option revolves around improving take-up rates for various app developers.
Facebook notes that:
“In addition to partners that include media editing app B612 and performative music creation app Smule, we’re thrilled to partner with VivaVideo and Vita, all of which provide uniquely rich and robust experiences for story creators. We’re also thrilled to be adding new partners to the platform soon – these will include Picsart, one of the world’s best creative platforms, Camera360 and Sweet Selfie.”
The most significant advantage here is the amount of expanded creativity this adds for Facebook Stories which, to the knowledge of many, is one of its key weaknesses.
The Wrap
The main thing to note whenever it comes to Facebook, or IG, and now Meta, trying to win back younger audiences is the apparent lack of innovation to come up with exciting, original new features and functions. Most Stories and Instagram Reels features are simply high-quality replicas of features originating from other platforms (Cue TikTok and Snapchat).
If they really want to spring ahead of TikTok, then Facebook really needs to brainstorm for new ideas that none of its competitors have even thought about. Meta should be able to do it, given its vast technological capacity. At least on this front, the ‘Creative App Platform’ is likely of more value to Facebook than with what Minis was able to credit to Snapchat. Afterall, Facebook has a wider, larger audience, thus immediately garnering the new option more interest. Though still primarily in a limited-beta stage, Facebook has already opened signs up for potential partners as the project gradually moves to its next phases.
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