Rumor: Facebook Developing Snapchat Competitor 'Slingshot' For Imminent Release

Earlier this year, Facebook attempted to purchase one of the most popular social apps on the planet, Snapchat – to little success. After offering $3 billion to acquire the little app that could, the world’s biggest social network is looking to make its own “ephermal messaging” app (i.e. a Snapchat competitor), if a report on the Financial Times is to be believed.

Though there are few details coupled with this rumor, the report does claim that, like Snapchat, users would be able to share video and pictures with others that disappear after one viewing, and can be done in just a few taps/clicks.

So, what will they call it? Apparently, Slingshot. And it could arrive as early as the end of May.

As The Verge cleverly points out, Slingshot, if real, is not the company’s first attempt to benefit from the successful Snapchat formula. Two years ago, Facebook created an app called Poke, which founder Mark Zuckerberg later referred to as “a joke.” The app was so abysmally panned across the tech world that Facebook actually discontinued the app recently.

Slingshot, conversely, is the product of much more time and effort on the part of Facebook’s development team – apparently many months’ worth at that. And since Facebook promised multiple, easy-to-use apps from the company this year, releasing Slingshot would make for a good next step.

Let’s see how this turns out over the next few weeks.

[Source: Financial Times]