

Introducing Poke for Mobile - friggeri
http://newsroom.fb.com/News/559/Introducing-Poke-for-Mobile

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greenwalls
"Each message expires after a specific time you've set, either 1, 3, 5 or 10
seconds. When time runs out, the message disappears from the app."

Sure it disappears from the app, but the message probably stays on Facebook's
servers for the rest of your life. Then someday in the future Facebook will
probably change their privacy settings suddenly (on purpose or accidentally)
and all your messages will appear on your timeline for everyone to see.

~~~
patrickod
I thought it was proven that previous reports of "private messages" showing up
on poeples' Timelines were false and were down to user confusion?

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nwh
While that's true, the fact is that the data stays forever.

If you copy the direct CDN url of a photo on Facebook and then "delete" it,
you can keep returning to that URL to see if it is still active. I've one
saved from 2009 that still loads, despite having being "deleted" for almost
three years now.

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obilgic
Apparently this app has been built in 12 days[1].

[1] <https://www.facebook.com/blake/posts/448334501889024>

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oh_sigh
That is not surprising, because it isn't a new feature of facebook, it is just
a UI skin which facilitates certain operations.

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Fjslfj
The last time Blake Ross cloned an app for Zuck was when Facebook Answers came
out to compete with Quora. I guess Zuck feels like Snapchat is a threat? I
wonder if he tried to buy them.

Blake Ross Clones usually scare people, but they never work out. I don't think
Snapchat has much to fear.

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stephengillie
Oh, so message expiry is the new hot trend? Quickly, pivot!

~~~
personlurking
There are pop-up restaurants, why not a pop-up status? Although the former
makes money.

~~~
stephengillie
I haven't heard of pop-up restaurants before, but they sound a lot like food
trucks.

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untog
The level to which this is a clone of Snapchat is kind of astounding. Did FB
ever try to buy them, or are they trying to destroy competition before they
have to pay big bucks like they did for Instagram?

It's all business, so I suppose all's fair, but it hardly paints Facebook as a
hub of innovation.

~~~
ksikka
Before starting a startup, you take into consideration the chance that a tech
giant might implement your idea better, faster, and stronger than you. It's a
risk that Snapchat took, and clearly it woke someone up.

From Facebook's point of view, why pay money for an app which can be developed
12 days? The only reasons they would acquire Snapchat are for the team and the
users.

The users of Snapchat are likely to already have a facebook, so they likely
don't care too much about the users. They will paint it as being more
convenient for the users, which is true, but it's also true that the nature of
capitalism is anticompetitive.

[http://proletariat.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/the-myth-of-
capi...](http://proletariat.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/the-myth-of-capitalist-
competition/)

In the case of Instagram, Facebook had more reasons to acquire, but I still
don't think that one was really worth 1.2 billion.

~~~
nwh
> why pay money for an app which can be developed 12 days

It sort of shows. I installed the app just to play around with the backend of
it, and it's fairly easy to get stuck in a loop with no back buttons. There's
also bits of the app that don't make sense, like the differentiation between
the different types of received "pokes".

~~~
ksikka
I'm sure an update will be released in a week. Facebook likes to "move fast
and break things".

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JGuo
This post is relevant: <http://dcurt.is/photos-for-communication>

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54mf
Is there _any_ use-case besides sexting that necessitates:

1\. Sending photos that automatically disappear in seconds; 2\. Requires user
input to view; 3\. Prevent screenshots, strong efforts to prevent saving
photos?

~~~
betelnut
Hmm...maybe cheating on exams?

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zaidf
When is that site which is a collection of Poke mesaage screenshots going to
show up? Can't be that long. I can also see this user reaction: "what! I
thought there was no way to save a poke message. facebook you lied to me."

Typically these complaints wouldn't matter as much but because of the
sensitive nature of communication this app is designed to facilitate, it could
matter much more.

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3825
Is this different from FaceBook Messenger? Looks like some duplication of
functionality. Are you going to pull Messenger from the market?

~~~
rjvir
The main difference here is that you can set messages to expire after a
certain time interval - a feature that became massively popular with SnapChat.

~~~
duaneb
What is the purpose of that? i can't think of a single use aside from, say,
sexting.

~~~
cmelbye
It's for fun, obviously, not everything has to have a utilitarian purpose...
People take compromising photos, make ugly faces, etc., with the knowledge
that the photo will only be seen for 3 seconds.

~~~
ojilles
Does screenshot not work during those times? I'm confused how this would give
the sender any comfort at all...

~~~
jlgreco
50% of the population is on the bottom half of that normal distribution.

People are _dumb_.

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peregrine
These are not real facebook pokes <https://www.facebook.com/pokes> they are
phony.

~~~
evanb
Phone-y? ;)

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mjcohenw
Just take a picture of the screen with another camera. Nothing can stop this.

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utsavagarwal
I wonder how Snapchat's founder reacted to this news..

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zxcvvcxz
Revolutionary.

