New Official Facebook Poke iOS Application

SnapChat cloning aside...<p>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."<p>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.<p>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.

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?<p>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.

How are they implementing the screenshot detection on iOS?<p>I searched and found some stack overflow posts, but they all seem stumped (especially for iOS 6)<p><a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13484516/ios-detection-of-screenshot" rel="nofollow">http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13484516/ios-detection-of...</a> <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2121970/notification-of-or-detecting-screenshot-being-taken/2122117#2122117" rel="nofollow">http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2121970/notification-of-o...</a>

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?

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.<p>I guess Facebook just further validated this mobile multimedia medium.

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.<p>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.

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

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?

Nice rip-off of SnapChat functionality.

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...

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

Why would you want your message to expire?

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

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?

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