Facebook launches new app Riff that helps you make collaborative videos with friends

Close on the heels of Twitter launching its video streaming app Periscope, Facebook has sent out a signal that it is not far behind in the game of video apps.

On Wednesday, Facebook’s product manager Josh Miller announced the launch of Riff, a fun app that helps you make collaborative videos with your friends. Anyone can start by making a short video clip (under 20 seconds) and then define it by a single hashtagging topic. Your friends can then view that video and add their own clip to it. Once your friend adds the clip, your friend’s friends can view it in Riff and then exponentially add their own clips.

Miller says ‘a potential pool of creative collaborators’ can help a ‘short video become an inventive project between circles of friends.’

If you have a gang of friends who have a habit of ruining your fun projects, Facebook allows you (maker of the first clip) to delete individual clips and even report them to the company as well. However, there is no option for users to ‘like’ or comment on the video. There are also reports that the app does not allow you to edit the video or even import a video from your phone’s memory.

As a fun concept, Riff is indeed refreshing and might be even viable for a company that has an established, mass user base. It is also a good addition to existing video applications like Vine, Periscope and Instagram video. The launch of Riff is also an indicator to Facebook’s growing and keen interest in native videos. A study by Socialbakers, a social media research company, said that video is not the future of social advertising, but the present. Citing a study done last year, it said that for the first time Facebook has succeeded in edging out YouTube, a video giant, from its platform through native videos.

Riff is available on both Android and iOS platforms.