Facebook Blows Launch of Another Snapchat Clone
Despite already shelling out $19 billion for Whatsapp, shoving DMs into Instagram, and funneling its vast user base into Messenger, Facebook still looks upon Snapchat with envious eyes. Now, a month after killing off Poke, the social network's first sloppy attempt to go after the momentary messaging market, the company botched the rollout of "Slingshot," ephemerally releasing the app to iTunes' foreign markets before pulling it.
Slingshot looks familiar: like Snapchat (and Poke), users are encouraged to doodle all over photos before firing them off to friends for a one-to-ten second tease. But there's a catch. In an obvious ploy to juice the app's virality, receivers will have to send a photo of their own before they can "unlock" their "slings."
And this being Facebook—a company founded on stealing other people's ideas—The Verge's Ellis Hamburger noticed Slingshot seems to be cribbing design and features from Taptalk.
Facebook Slingshot icon (left) vs Taptalk (right). The two apps are said to have many more similarities pic.twitter.com/M8hzP6HixK
— Ellis Hamburger (@hamburger) June 9, 2014
According to the app's now-pulled iTunes Store listing, Slingshot should be officially launched later today.