

New Official Facebook Poke iOS Application - remi
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facebook-poke/id588594730?mt=8

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gkoberger
SnapChat cloning aside...

I know I'm probably in the minority here, but I really like Facebook's
decision to create multiple apps. We aren't good with thinking of apps as
having multiple functionalities. Our thought process is more along the lines
of "This app is for this, this app is for this, etc."

Having one app means a lot of features get lost in the app, and people turn to
alternative apps (like Foursquare, Batch or WeChat) for functionality.

Edit: To put it another way, what if Google had one app and inside it was
GMail, Search, Maps, etc? Facebook sees these as products, not features.

~~~
tejaswiy
I hope you're right. I think so too and I'm building a native check-in
experience for Facebook as a side-project. It's almost ready to be launched,
but I haven't managed to convince anyone I talked to that they needed a
separate native app for check-ins. Lets see I guess.

~~~
aaronpk
Agreed! Please launch this! My favorite Foursquare app is called Checkie, it's
basically a one-click checkin app. <https://github.com/tijoinc/Checkie>

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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. I quit a job a few years ago once they gave me the task of
basically cloning a competitor from the ground up. There's no excitement or
challenge in that, and I can only imagine some very bored Facebook developers
have had a less than notable Holiday season so far.

~~~
purplelobster
We're talking about something as obvious as taking a photo and sending it to a
friend in a streamlined fashion. If this counts as innovation here, I want no
part in it. Taking a huge stream of data and figuring out what to show to who
might be called an innovation, but this is not. Building the worlds best
mapping service with street view is innovation, this is not.

~~~
untog
It's taking a photo, which self-destructs after a certain period. It's not
mind-blowingly innovative, but the idea, time periods (max of 10 secs) and
even the UI involved are _exactly_ the same as Snapchat.

If the original idea isn't innovative then Facebook's version is orders of
magnitude less so.

~~~
purplelobster
I rarely defend Facebook, but if you make an app that snaps a photo (which
self-destructs) that you can then send to friends, then you knew what you're
getting yourself into. The only two options you have is to either make an app
that is difficult to copy, or make an easy app but hope for the network effect
to work in your favor (i.e. any social media thing out there).

~~~
loceng
He's not arguing it's not going to be copied - he's arguing Facebook copied it
/ cloned it. Why afraid to just say that it's true?

~~~
27182818284
>Why afraid to just say that it's true?

On Internet forums accusations of "copying" are generally used the same as
"stealing" with a morality payload attached. For example, when something is
copied and slightly modified people say "fork" to make sure it is read
positively. _shrug_

~~~
loceng
Well, I think this is assumed, yes. But Facebook would never admit that "Yes,
we liked this idea, so we developed our own" - and because of this it shows a
feeling of guilt, or at minimum not being honest. But that fits with
Facebook's character, and many who are dishonest in fact.

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0x0
How are they implementing the screenshot detection on iOS?

I searched and found some stack overflow posts, but they all seem stumped
(especially for iOS 6)

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13484516/ios-detection-
of...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13484516/ios-detection-of-
screenshot) [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2121970/notification-
of-o...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2121970/notification-of-or-
detecting-screenshot-being-taken/2122117#2122117)

~~~
Xuzz
I looked into how SnapChat does it, it's pretty simple:
<http://blog.chpwn.com/post/38491252231>

~~~
0x0
Oooh, thanks for the explanation. I figured it had something to do with
touches dropping off (the other posts mentioned it, and it's kind of obvious
since they ask you to long press to view). But I thought the touchesCancelled
would be too unreliable, with push messages, system notifications, incoming
calls, or just dragging the finger out of the screen.

How would you detect the lack of WillEnterBackground/DidResignActive to avoid
false positives? Just set a timeout and send a "screenshot!" notification if
the timeout expires without going to background?

~~~
Xuzz
Yeah, probably. Anything that gets in front of the app should call one of
those two, and do so pretty immediately. A timer for a second or so later
should be pretty safe.

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zaidf
Can someone explain to me the thinking behind the multiple app strategy for
facebook? Personally I find it grossly inconvenient to switch apps when going
from chatting with a friend to seeing their Timeline. What am I missing?

~~~
patio11
You're not optimizing for a user session measured in seconds by weakly
attached people-who-are-not-technologists. Facebook is.

Slide open phone, one touch to open app, one touch to take picture, as few
touches as possible to re-engage 2nd party "user" of app.

~~~
zaidf
One touch to open Camera app. One touch to post pic.

Multiple apps to see what the pic looks like on my wall? Multiple apps to post
snarky comment about pic on my friend's timeline? May be you are right that
this is a use-case tech people have but from my observation, I see this
pattern repeated all the time on facebook activity of non-tech friends.

On more than one occasion I have elected to use WhatsApp over facebook Chat
app because of the app switch. My thinking is "hey if I _have_ to switch apps,
might as well pick the better chat app of the two". If this was built into the
main FB app like it used to be, I'd be less likely to use WhatsApp.

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mildavw
Maybe it's because my small social network (my extended family) all have
iPhones, but we abandoned Facebook about a year ago in favor of iMessage.
Group text, photos, and movies fly back and forth almost every day. And when
we want it live, Facetime.

I guess Facebook just further validated this mobile multimedia medium.

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fratis
Sure, it's like SnapChat, but isn't that always the dynamic in this industry:
the Feature Qua Product (simplicity, focus) vs. Feature Qua Feature
(integration)? Some folks, like those who use Buffer, for example, simply
prefer tightly-focused, standalone apps while others prefer ones that do more,
that integrate many features into a (sometimes) cohesive product a la
HootSuite.

Personal note: while I'd have been tempted to compare them to Apple or Google
in the past, Facebook's turning out to be a lot more like Microsoft for the
web, appropriating features or buying companies to Do Everything, even if
they're not the best in each vertical.

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namank
And just like that, Poke Wars became a real thing!

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atte
I'm trying to understand what they're going for here. The interesting part is
that the "pokes" are ephemeral. Is that special because every other type of
electronic message has permanence?

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tylermac1
Nice rip-off of SnapChat functionality.

~~~
k-mcgrady
I don't know much about SnapChat but this is very clearly a feature not a
product, and a feature that Facebook's users will probably be happy to get.
Trying to build a business around this one idea would be very risky.

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chromejs10
Do we really need ANOTHER facebook app? At this rate I'm going to have a
dedicated folder of "Facebook crap". It doesn't make life easier to have all
these things separate. I understand the camera app, but not things like this
app or the messenger app, especially since in the messenger app I end up
getting notified of new mail there and in the original facebook app...

~~~
supercoder
Ah, I was worried too but just found that it doesn't automatically force
install itself on your phone. So the easy workaround here if you haven't
downloaded it is to not download. If already install google around for how to
delete apps.

~~~
chromejs10
That was very witty. However the point of comments is to have discussions
about the posted content whether it be positive or negative. Your comment adds
no value.

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lttlrck
I suppose calling it Poke is a clue for intended use. Though they could have
gone for SnatchChat and forgone the ambiguity.

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tree_of_item
Why would you want your message to expire?

~~~
RandallBrown
Beyond sexting, I don't really know.

All the college aged girls I know love Snapchat. Not sure why, but I guess
it's just fun.

~~~
simonholroyd
Does anyone here know whether sexting is actually a major use for SnapChat?
It's often thrown around as the 'obvious' use-case for the service, but having
not tried it I'm not sure if there's any curation/content flagging or banning
system.

If it is a popular use, does facebook really want that sort of content? Does
facebook think that sexting users would trust them with their photos? If I
were to send a sext, I'd certainly consider the (even faint) possibility that
the pics could get up on facebook somehow...

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bosky101
features aside, it must be pretty satisfying for fb employees to know that
internal ideas can become separate apps.

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danso
So has anyone read the TOS yet? Is there a guarantee that the content is
deleted from their servers in a reasonable amount of time?

~~~
creativityland
Given their track record, I wouldn't count on it.

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benlower
We're saved! This Poke app must be what averted the Mayan disaster.

~~~
ghotli
I hate to be that guy, but we value a pretty high signal to noise ratio here
on HN. Comments like this will likely always get you downvoted and for good
reason. The guidelines at the top are worth a read from time to time.

