Facebook has launched a new app called Riff that allows users to make videos collaboratively with friends. How it works is that you create a video, add tags to it and share it with friends. They can then add their clips to the video and share it among their friends, who can add their clips as well and so on. Each clip needs to be 20 seconds or less in duration. Videos made on Riff can be shared on Facebook or the Internet in general. Here’s an example of a Riff video. The app is currently available for Android and iOS devices.
Users need to shoot the video using Riff, and can’t upload videos. Also, there are no options to like or comment on Riffs. The idea is to encourage users to collaborate. If, however, a video is too lengthy or boring users can fast forward.
The social networking giant mentions that Riff is a Facebook Creative Labs project, which has earlier created apps like Paper, Slingshot, Mentions, Rooms and Facebook Groups.
It’ll be interesting to see how Riff gets used: maybe as a meme creator to make the next Harlem Shake series or maybe as a video blog. Given that the inspiration to create Riff came from the ALS Ice bucket challenge videos that had been the rage last year, don’t be surprised if Facebook is flooded with more memes.
Social media companies seem to be increasing focus on video. Twitter’s acquisition of livestreaming video app Periscope was much discussed, and the microblogging major already owns Vine. On the other hand, video on Facebook hasn’t really taken off as expected. If nothing else, Riff will be a great learning experience for Facebook to understand what netizens want from user-generated video content.
