Facebook to release experimental apps under NPE Team name

In the coming weeks, Facebook will release new apps aimed at consumers, under the developer name NPE Team, from Facebook. With these apps, users should be able to build communities like Facebook, only the apps offer a ‘different experience’.

With the NPE Team apps, Facebook wants to release small, focused apps that offer new ‘experiences’ to users. This way the company can learn whether users appreciate the new features or not. Facebook gives these apps a different developer name so that users can see that they are experimental apps that can quickly change and be closed. Facebook expects many apps to fail.

It is not clear what and how many apps Facebook will release under the new name. The company does say that knowledge gained from the apps can be used for ‘the thinking and product strategy of the future’. It is not inconceivable that Facebook will implement parts from successful NPE Team apps in the existing Facebook apps. According to the company, NPE stands for New Product Experimentation.

The apps will soon be available for download from the Apple App Store, Google Play Store and ‘on the internet’. Facebook emphasizes that user information will be kept secure and that the services will be covered by the same agreements as Facebook’s. The NPE Team apps will also have “additional” terms in the agreements. Some NPE Team apps can be connected to the user’s Facebook account, Facebook writes.