Lasso, Facebook’s answer to the wildly popular TikTok, is going to the great app store in the sky. Based on screenshots tweeted by CNN media reporter Kerry Flynn, it appears the app will shutter on Friday, July 10.
Quietly introduced in November 2018, Lasso invited US users to create 15-second videos using an Android or iOS smartphone and millions of licensed songs from Facebook’s music library. When not uploading lip-syncing videos, folks could watch an endless stream of clips, follow other creators, and discover new content.
Sound familiar? TikTok burst onto the social media scene in 2018, surpassing Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram to become the world’s most-downloaded iOS app at the time. Now it faces scrutiny from parents, privacy groups, and the U.S. government who claim the app puts children at risk.
Lasso, meanwhile, never quite caught on, despite earning top marks from users (it boasts 4.6 out of 5 stars in the App Store). Which is likely why Facebook has decided to cut ties with the floundering feature. The social network did not immediately respond to PCMag’s request for comment. According to Flynn’s tweets, the handful of folks who actually used Lasso to upload and share videos can now download their content for posterity.
Lasso isn’t this month’s only Facebook casualty: The experimental Pinterest rip-off Hobbi will also shut down on July 10. One of the New Product Experimentation (NPE) Team’s latest ventures, Hobbi served as a short-form content creation space for personal projects. The application garnered fewer than 10,000 downloads in the few months that it was available, TechCrunch reported, citing estimates from Sensor Tower and Apptopia. Now, users are being notified of its upcoming demise.
