Facebook: Poke and Camera apps were removed from the App Store

Did you ever Poke somebody on Facebook? Chances are most people haven’t, this is why the company has decided to remove it completely, along with the Camera which was another barely used app. The interesting thing is that Facebook removed the apps without any announcement whatsoever, but I guess they figured it wouldn’t really matter since nobody was using them anyway.

Poke was released back in December 2012 and was most likely aimed at competing with the increasingly popular Snapchat. The app provided users with the possibility of sending photos, messages, videos, and of course a “poke”. These only lasted a few seconds each, just like Snapchat. Although the two serve pretty much the same purpose, Facebook’s app didn’t really catch on for some reason. Was it because they were a little late to the temporary messages party, or because it didn’t receive any updates since launch? We may never know, but it’s very unlikely that anyone will miss it.

On the other hand, the Camera was a bit more popular. Facebook launched the app back in May 2012, and for a while it seemed like it was going to catch on. The app allowed users to upload and share multiple pictures at once on Facebook, prior to its release you could only do it one at a time. Camera was considered to be quite useful and unlike Poke, it did receive a few updates every now and then. Its main features were integrated into the main Facebook app, so I assume this is why it was removed as a standalone.

The removal of these two apps make it seem like something is wrong at Facebook but don’t worry. The company’s Creative Labs initiative is hard at work and it launched a first app called “Paper”, which has already gained some popularity. What do you guys think about the removal of Poke and Camera, did you ever use them?