Facebook's Slingshot released to users

Slingshot, a new app from Facebook allows users to send images that can be viewed once an image has been sent back. Image: com Digital Trends]]

Slingshot, available for Apple and Android devices, is the second product to come out of Facebook's Creative Labs ideas laboratory.

"Shoot a photo or video of what you're up to and sling it to a bunch of friends," reads the Slingshot blurb on Apple's iTunes app store.

"They won't be able to see your shot until they sling something back."

Not unlike Snapchat, which Facebook tried but failed to acquire last year for $3bn, Slingshot photos and videos self-destruct after viewing, although there's nothing stopping a recipient from using a smartphone's screenshot feature to copy a photo.

"Photos and videos that don't stick around forever allow for sharing that's more expressive, raw and spontaneous," blogged the app's developers on Slingshot's dedicated website SlingMe website.

"With Slingshot, we saw an opportunity to create something new and different: a space where you can share everyday moments with lots of people at once," the company said.

Slingshot comes four months after Paper, the first app out of Creative Labs, which sets out to give Facebook more of a magazine feeling for mobile device users.

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge