Meerkat, and Twitter's live video streaming app Periscope, have garnered a lot of attention in recent weeks, and now, Facebook has launched Riff, another video app with potentially viral growth.
Unlike Meerkat and Periscope, Riff isn't a live streaming app, but it allows multiple users to add footage to create a single collaborative video. You create a short video and add a few tags to it, your Facebook friends then see your video and are invited to add their own footage. Your friend's clip is then shared with his friends, so you could have a very large collaborative project very quickly.
Each clip can be a maximum of 20 seconds long, and in case the projects get too large, you can easily skip clips with a fast-forward button. Just imagine how long the "Gangnam Style" Riff would have been.
Riffs can be shared through Facebook or directly on the Web. Riff is available now in 15 languages on iOS and Android.
Facebook's Riff product manager Josh Miller told TechCrunch that Riff was inspired by the viral spread of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014, where millions around the world soaked themselves with iced water to raise money for charity. In that case, ice-soaked people challenged three friends to take up the challenge at the end of their videos which led to massive viral growth.
"The potential pool of creative collaborators can grow exponentially from there, so a short video can become an inventive project between circles of friends you can share to Facebook or anywhere on the Internet," he said.
Unsurprisingly, Facebook isn't the first to think of this idea. Vyclone, CollabraCam and JumpCam all offer similar collaborative functionality, but then they're not owned by Facebook. It's a simple app but the combination of a very strong social element and having immediate access to Facebook's massive network of friends gives Riff a great chance of achieving viral growth. You can check out Facebook's sample video here.
