Facebook has cut short its US-only trial of Slingshot and announced the global availability of its app on international Android and iOS app stores.
Facebook, the world's largest social networking company, announced that its latest photo messaging app, Slingshot, is now available worldwide, one week after it was launched in the US as a part of its trial.
"Since we launched last week, we've heard from lots of people around the world who are excited to give Slingshot a try," Facebook wrote in a Slingshot blog post, Tuesday. "Starting today, we're expanding our initial launch and making Slingshot available internationally!"
While Facebook remains optimistic about Slingshot's success, the app has received mixed reactions from its users. With a mere 3 star rating on both Android and iOS app stores, Facebook is hoping to impress a wider audience with its Snapchat-rival. The app has been mainly criticized for its close resemblance to Snapchat, although it has some unique features of its own.
Facebook's idea behind its new photo messaging platform is to engage users more intensely. The app requires users to send reaction shots in order to unlock and view the received picture, which disappear after viewing and clearing them. Slingshot users can also write captions and make drawings on the images and videos. Users can save photos, play sound effects, play draw music and see hidden people from its settings tab.
The ephemeral messages may offer a sense of security to users but Slingshot does not notify users if the recipient has taken a screenshot of the image, a feature which is offered in Snapchat. Slingshot is far from Snapchat in terms of downloads and user reviews and it will take some time to reach that space. Snapchat has a positive 4 star rating on Google Play Store with total app downloads ranging between 50 million to 100 million.
Slingshot is available for download on Google Play Store and Apple App Store for free. The app requires iOS7 and Android 4.3 Jelly Bean or above.
