Facebook is probably the last place you’d post anything that you may someday want to disappear. However, that may all change with Slingshot, an app that the social network unveiled this morning which lets you send pictures and videos that go away after being viewed. Sounds like Snapchat, right?
But there’s one twist, and it’s a big one: to access the images or videos they receive, users must send their own message in return. So when a notification pops up for a message from a friend, the user has to record or snap his or her own to send before gaining access to the incoming message. Basically, if you’re tired of being the only one of your friends to send goofy selfies or random pics of your dogs, this may be the app for you.
“With Slingshot, we wanted to build something where everybody is a creator and nobody is just a spectator,” the app’s creators said in a blog post. “When everyone participates, there’s less pressure, more creativity and even the little things in life can turn into awesome shared experiences.”
Critics are divided as to whether Slingshot will be a serious competitor for Snapchat, which currently has around 30 million users and refused an acquisition offer from Facebok last fall.
“It’s frustrating, not exciting when a friend sends you a shot and you can’t immediately view it,” wrote Ellis Hamburger of The Verge. “Slingshot is a new and strange example of a messaging app that raises barriers instead of tearing them down, and increases the friction to viewing a friend’s photo instead of reducing it. But perhaps Slingshot isn’t the ‘messaging’ app we all expected it to be.”
Also unlike Snapchat, there’s not as much urgency.
“What we found is that you don’t feel the need to respond immediately,” app designer Joey Flynn told Mashable. “It’s more [like], I want to share what I’m up to whenever I can, and then they’re going to feel almost no pressure to share back whatever they’re doing because it’s a shared experience.”
The app is available for both the iPhone and Android and does not require a Facebook account.
So what do you think, collegiettes? Will you stop Snapping and start Slinging? Tell us in the comments!