Facebook Closes Its Creative Labs

Facebook is shutting down its Creative Labs operation, which helped research and develop new apps services for the company as it looked to gain a foothold in the mobile world.

A number of these apps will also be closed, including the Snapchat-like timed messaging service Slingshot and Riffs. Rooms, which sought to reinvent the idea of online forums, will also be closing, leaving just Facebook Paper, a news reader service for mobile devices, as the sole Creative Labs output.

Evolving

All three apps are less than two years old, suggesting they have not had the effect Facebook intended, however the company says this is not the case.

“Since their launches, we’ve incorporated elements of Slingshot, Riff, and Rooms into the Facebook for iOS and Android apps,” a spokesperson for Facebook said.

“We haven’t updated these apps in some time and we’ve decided to officially end support by removing them from the App Store and Google Play.”

The news is the latest move from Facebook as it looks to offer its users a wider range of services.

Many of these will be through Messenger, which now includes the ability to pay money to other users through the app, and will also soon feature a Siri-esque personal assistant that is able to complete tasks such as buying items, arrange deliveries, book restaurants, travel arrangements, appointments.

The company also revealed back in August that more than one billion people had accessed Facebook that month for the first time, which meant that one in seven people across the world logged into the social network.

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