For those who want to keep on the edge of the latest social media, Facebook has launched a new mobile app that lets users trade photos and video based messages that disappear after a few seconds. Uh?
Oh wait, there is another catch. You can’t view an incoming message on Slingshot until you respond with a photo or video of your own.
No passive users on Slingshot, as the app forces its users to trade photos and videos, quid pro quo. And you thought your school day trading days were over.
“With Slingshot, we wanted to build something where everybody is a creator and nobody is just a spectator,” its creators said Tuesday in a blog post announcing the app. “When everyone participates, there’s less pressure, more creativity and even the little things in life can turn into awesome shared experiences.”
At first look Slingshot is pretty much like Snapchat or any other messaging app. But in Slingshot you have to shoot back. “It’s not just about telling your story, it’s about asking others for their story”, said Slingshot creator Joey Flynn.
According to The Verge, Slingshot does let you send a shot to just one person, but the app doesn’t really encourage it. “”We don’t see this as a messaging app… It’s more along lines of a feed or stream”.
“It’s frustrating, not exciting when a friend sends you a shot and you can’t immediately view it,” wrote Ellis Hamburger in tech-news site The Verge. “Slingshot is a new and strange example of a messaging app that raises barriers instead of tearing them down, and increases the friction to viewing a friend’s photo instead of reducing it.”
