Facebook has removed its Snapchat-patterned Poke app and the Camera app from iTunes due to lack of publicity and fanfare.
Poke allows users to exchange soon-to-be-expired photos, "pokes", and other messages to their friends. The app came as a random acquisition in one of Facebook's coding events known as hackathon. It was seen as a competition to the already existing Snapchat. The latter sends photos or messages which are designed to be deleted after some period of time.
Poke does not seem to have created so much rave in itself. Earlier this year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckenberg described Poke as more like a joke and not a serious app when he was interviewed by Bloomberg Businessweek. Several reasons were cited for its failure which include Facebook's "open" public perception and Snapchat's authority in the "ephemeral messaging" system. Clearly, the app was not one of Facebook's priorities given the fact that it took the company a short time period of 12 days in building it. Zuckerberg, whose voice is used as the app's alert sound, was constantly reminded by members of the press about the app's imminent failure.
Camera, on the other hand, is another Facebook app that can shoot, filter, and share photos. Its launch coincided with Facebook's acquisition of the more popular Instagram which does mostly the same types of service.
Unlike Poke, Camera was a largely well-regarded app perhaps because of its feature that allows members to upload multiple photos to Facebook. Prior to its launch, users can only pick photos one by one when they are uploading from a smartphone.
"Neither app has been updated in some time, and we've decided to officially end support by removing them from the app store," a Facebook spokeswoman said in a statement, echoed by the PCWorld.
The apps, which were never released for Android, had some of its features incorporated into the iOS and Android apps of Facebook. One example is the photo upload tool from Camera.
The apps removal was first reported by The Verge on Friday.
