Facebook Announces Group Movie Talks for Messenger, Social Media Today
Без кейворда
Facebook has today announced group movie talks in Messenger, the latest addition to the ever-expanding messaging app.
Messenger already has group audio calls and one-on-one movie talks, so the addition of group movie makes sense – in fact, according to Facebook it’s “the most requested Messenger feature ever”. And given the popularity of movie calls on the platform (245 million people make movie calls in Messenger every month) and the use-case highlighted by other group movie talk contraptions, like Houseparty, it seemed like a no-brainer that Facebook would eventually add group movie capacity also.
Your fresh Messenger movie talks can include up to six people at a time, while up to fifty people can listen in to the conversation and participate. You’ll also be able to send text, stickers, emoji and even wear 3D masks during the talk (masks available on iOS only at this stage).
The timing of the launch is aimed at maximizing interest in the fresh device as people look to connect over the holidays, which will no doubt help give the option a boost. And as noted, given the popularity of Houseparty, which also focusses on live group movie conversation, there’s clearly request there – however it’s not exactly excellent news for Houseparty itself.
Party’s Over?
Back in March 2015, a start-up called Meerkat took SXSW by storm, sparking the next big trend of live-streaming from your mobile device. Pretty soon (within a duo of weeks, actually), Meerkat had competition from Twitter-owned Periscope and things just got stiffer and tighter from there till Meerkat could no longer contest.
No matter however – the Meerkat team went back to the drawing board, analyzing what worked and what didn’t, and a few months later they released a fresh live-streaming app, this time focussed n group talks. That app, called Houseparty, has proven to be very popular – it now has 1.Two million daily users.
Pretty cool, right? Good for Meerkat, they’ve been able to tap into another trend and develop another popular app. But there is, of course, still the problem of thicker players hiding.
As we noted in our post about Houseparty’s launch:
“…if a significant enough number of users demonstrate interest in multi-person live-streaming by using Houseparty, how long do you think it’ll be before Facebook introduces the same option?”
As it turns out, that concern was valid, as Facebook has most certainly noted Houseparty’s rise.
For example, when Instagram launched their fresh live-streaming fuinctionality recently, Instagram Live product manager Shilp Sarkar noted that:
“The use case that caught our attention was people just stringing up out on live, particularly youthful people. After school, they leap on a livestream and dangle out. That use of live [movie] is particularly interesting to us.”
That’s the audience that Houseparty is reaching – and now, with Facebook bringing group movie talks into Messenger, that could spell significant trouble for Houseparty moving forward.
It’s good that Houseparty has 1.Two million daily users – but Messenger has more than a billion active users, with a large proportion of them using the app daily. Hard for a start-up to face off against a competitor of that scale.
Competitive Dominance
And this raises another key question about our evolving social media landscape – as the fatter players get fatter, how can newer apps and contraptions viably contest?
Snapchat, of course, has proven that it can be done, that smaller players with fewer resources can still challenge the big names. But even then, Facebook’s leisurely working to crush them, copying the app’s key features and re-sharing them with their much larger audience. Eventually, Facebook will, most-likely, hammer out Snapchat and any other players, if they so want to, which makes it enormously daunting for any newer platform looking to build up traction.
This is particularly true on live-streaming – live-streaming is costly to run and difficult to scale. You need a lot of resources to be able to build a stable live-stream platform. Group streaming app Blab couldn’t do it, and as noted, Meerkat checked out. Eventually, we may end up with only Google, through YouTube, and Facebook as the two live-stream options, as even Twitter will likely fight as the option gains popularity and momentum.
It’s an interesting paradigm to consider – every time you see a fresh app, something like Peach, for example, it’s worth considering what’s popular about it, what’s resonating with audiences. Then, observe how long it takes for those exact same functionalities to show up in the thicker platform offerings.
This won’t, and shouldn’t, stop fresh players from attempting to break through, but as Facebook proceeds to expand, you can expect Zuck and Co to become more superior in every form, making it very difficult for others to rival.
Scary? Maybe. But this is how the thicker players win out.
Group movie talk is rolling out worldwide on iOS, Android, and web from today with MSQRD masks coming soon to Android.
Facebook Announces Group Movie Talks for Messenger, Social Media Today
Без кейворда
Facebook has today announced group movie talks in Messenger, the latest addition to the ever-expanding messaging app.
Messenger already has group audio calls and one-on-one movie talks, so the addition of group movie makes sense – in fact, according to Facebook it’s “the most requested Messenger feature ever”. And given the popularity of movie calls on the platform (245 million people make movie calls in Messenger every month) and the use-case highlighted by other group movie talk contraptions, like Houseparty, it seemed like a no-brainer that Facebook would eventually add group movie capacity also.
Your fresh Messenger movie talks can include up to six people at a time, while up to fifty people can listen in to the conversation and participate. You’ll also be able to send text, stickers, emoji and even wear 3D masks during the talk (masks available on iOS only at this stage).
The timing of the launch is aimed at maximizing interest in the fresh implement as people look to connect over the holidays, which will no doubt help give the option a boost. And as noted, given the popularity of Houseparty, which also focusses on live group movie conversation, there’s clearly request there – however it’s not exactly good news for Houseparty itself.
Party’s Over?
Back in March 2015, a start-up called Meerkat took SXSW by storm, sparking the next big trend of live-streaming from your mobile device. Pretty soon (within a duo of weeks, actually), Meerkat had competition from Twitter-owned Periscope and things just got tighter and firmer from there till Meerkat could no longer contest.
No matter tho’ – the Meerkat team went back to the drawing board, analyzing what worked and what didn’t, and a few months later they released a fresh live-streaming app, this time focussed n group talks. That app, called Houseparty, has proven to be very popular – it now has 1.Two million daily users.
Pretty cool, right? Good for Meerkat, they’ve been able to tap into another trend and develop another popular app. But there is, of course, still the problem of fatter players stashing.
As we noted in our post about Houseparty’s launch:
“…if a significant enough number of users display interest in multi-person live-streaming by using Houseparty, how long do you think it’ll be before Facebook introduces the same option?”
As it turns out, that concern was valid, as Facebook has most certainly noted Houseparty’s rise.
For example, when Instagram launched their fresh live-streaming fuinctionality recently, Instagram Live product manager Shilp Sarkar noted that:
“The use case that caught our attention was people just stringing up out on live, particularly youthful people. After school, they hop on a livestream and string up out. That use of live [movie] is particularly interesting to us.”
That’s the audience that Houseparty is reaching – and now, with Facebook bringing group movie talks into Messenger, that could spell significant trouble for Houseparty moving forward.
It’s good that Houseparty has 1.Two million daily users – but Messenger has more than a billion active users, with a large proportion of them using the app daily. Hard for a start-up to face off against a competitor of that scale.
Competitive Dominance
And this raises another key question about our evolving social media landscape – as the fatter players get fatter, how can newer apps and devices viably rival?
Snapchat, of course, has proven that it can be done, that smaller players with fewer resources can still challenge the big names. But even then, Facebook’s leisurely working to crush them, copying the app’s key features and re-sharing them with their much larger audience. Eventually, Facebook will, most-likely, hammer out Snapchat and any other players, if they so want to, which makes it enormously daunting for any newer platform looking to build up traction.
This is particularly true on live-streaming – live-streaming is costly to run and difficult to scale. You need a lot of resources to be able to build a stable live-stream platform. Group streaming app Blab couldn’t do it, and as noted, Meerkat checked out. Eventually, we may end up with only Google, through YouTube, and Facebook as the two live-stream options, as even Twitter will likely fight as the option gains popularity and momentum.
It’s an interesting paradigm to consider – every time you see a fresh app, something like Peach, for example, it’s worth considering what’s popular about it, what’s resonating with audiences. Then, see how long it takes for those exact same functionalities to emerge in the fatter platform offerings.
This won’t, and shouldn’t, stop fresh players from attempting to break through, but as Facebook resumes to expand, you can expect Zuck and Co to become more superior in every form, making it very difficult for others to contest.
Scary? Maybe. But this is how the thicker players win out.
Group movie talk is rolling out worldwide on iOS, Android, and web from today with MSQRD masks coming soon to Android.