New Facebook app lets friends comment on video with clips

Facebook has announced a new app that allows users to link a short video to a topic. The intention is that friends of the maker will respond to the video with their own clips.

The app is called Riff and is available for iOS and Android. Users are shown a counter to get ready, after which the smartphone starts recording. User can record videos of up to 20 seconds and only approve but not edit them. After publishing, only friends can comment with clips. If they do, the video sequence will appear in their timeline and their friends will be able to comment as well.

The number of people who contribute can grow exponentially in this way, according to Facebook. The aim therefore seems to be to make videos go viral on the internet in this way, although video series can also remain private. The project comes from Facebook’s Creative Labs, which was also behind services such as Paper, Slingshot, Rooms and Groups, which were not very successful.