Facebook tests ephemeral posts in its iPhone app
In the company Facebook they never sit idly by. And it is that, when they are not testing a new design to make their social network more attractive and functional, they are launching tests to through your applications to test new features and options. Something more than necessary to stay among the most used and followed social networks by users.On this last occasion, the tests have focused on a concept that seems to continue to attract the attention of Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook : the ephemeral
Thus, for a few days some users of the application Facebook on iPhone have found a curious feature. When you post a new status update or any other content on your wall you will find the Choose Expiration option. Or what is the same, choose expiration or elimination time In this way you can program the autodeletionof said publication before it is even made public, thus limiting the number of people who will see it and controlling its spread.
In the screenshots that some users have published after realizing the introduction of this feature it is possible to see the different options that Facebookoffers.Thus, the user can leave the publication visible from one hour to seven days, going through other intermediate time intervals. Once this time elapses, the publication is deleted from your wall forever, although it can remain on Facebook's servers until 90 days after its deletion before it disappears effectively and permanently.
The ephemeral in posts and communications between people seems to be attracting attention. Proof of this is the success of the application Snapchat that has become so famous for this very feature. With it, users can set how many seconds a photo or video can be viewed by the other party in a conversation before the content fades away. Something that Zuckerberg must have liked to the point of trying to buy this app, which is going its own independent way.
After the failed agreement Facebook did not renounce to experiment with the ephemeral. For this reason, it launched an application called Poke that closely followed the operation of Snapchat, allowing send photos and videos of a single viewing to contacts of this social network. However, the idea did not come to fruition, with Zuckerberg himself stating that said tool had been a mere experience. That's when it started to take shape Slingshot A new app focused on sending content that can only be viewed once. Of course, in this case with a twist in terms of the concept, forcing the user to share photos and videos if he wants to be able to see what other users send him .
In any case, for the moment Facebook is testing the possibility of publishing status updates with expiration dateSomething that can be useful for users who want to control the visibility of their statuses even before publishing them. At the moment we will have to wait to see if Facebook decides to extend this feature to the rest of mobile apps when you are done with your tests.
