Days after CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave the Facebook a new mission statement to build communities and to bring the world closer together, the social network is developing a new group video chat app that takes cues from the popular Houseparty app.
The new standalone app in development called “Bonfire” was recently demonstrated to employees and is being targeted to launch later this year.
“We don’t have anything to share at this time,” The Verge quoted Facebook spokeswoman as saying.
There are no details as to how Bonfire will work, though according to media reports it has been dubbed as a clone of Houseparty.
Launched in 2016, Houseparty, a video-focused social media app allows friends and friends of friends to communicate with each other via live video and texts.
Houseparty changed the way we video chat and within few days of its inception the app rose to 1.2 million users spending 20 million minutes a day using it.
For Facebook, these kind of apps that become an overnight sensation among teenagers pose a threat to the social network.
This can be a major reason why Facebook tried to acquire Snapchat, and when refused, started copycatting its most distinctive features.
While Facebook’s copycatting of Snapchat “Stories” feature appears to have been liked by with Instagram users, similar features in the main Facebook app and Messenger were not welcomed much by users.
Houseparty currently falls under top 200 app in Apple’s US App Store, according to market research firm App Annie, only gives Facebook more reason to explore it.
Facebook now has over two billion monthly active users on its platform – up from 1.94 billion total that the company announced during its recent earnings report in May.
