Facebook launches two new apps for live-streaming and making music

The new apps, called Venue and Collab, come from the company's New Product Experimentation team

US competition regulators ordered Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and Facebook to hand over details on their takeovers of hundreds of smaller firms (Getty)

Facebook has launched two new apps, called Venue and Collab.

The iOS and Android tools come from Facebook's NPE, or New Product Experimentation, team.

Venue is a dedicated app for live streams, which have been on the rise due to the coronavirus lockdown. It intends to provide an interactive second-screen experience “curated by experts and centred on the pivotal moments of their favourite events”, according to the announcement, where short-form videos called “Moments” can be created and shared with viewers.

These experts can include well-known personalities, such as journalists, current or former athletes, or aspiring “fan-analysts”, says Facebook, suggesting that rather than try and have everyone comment on an event as Twitter does, it is focused on more direct communication.

Nascarcasm, an anonymous parody account on Twitter with 180K followers, is one of the commenters who will be using Venue

The app’s first partner is NASCAR, one of the first major US sporting organisations to start its events again, with the Supermarket Heroes 500 having started on 31 May from Bristol, Tennessee.

“As NASCAR makes its return to action over the coming weeks, Venue will provide users with a unique and exciting way to connect with fellow race fans from around the globe – all from the safety and comfort of their own homes. NASCAR was built on innovation, and we couldn’t be more excited to help a great partner like Facebook’s New Product Experimentation team innovate around new platforms” said Tim Clark, SVP and Chief Digital Officer of NASCAR.

The second app that Facebook has launched is Collab, an invite-only application which attempts to let “creators and fans to create, watch, and mix and match original videos” according to the social media giant.

“Collabs” are three independent videos, synchronised together, with users able to change the arrangement by adding in their own recording or by swiping part of the arrangement away and replacing it with another one.

Once a video has been created, it can be published on Facebook Stories, Instagram (also owned by Facebook) or on other social media apps.

These two new apps come days after Facebook announced yet another app called CatchUp which intends to help people know when their friends and family are available to talk.