Facebook launched a new application called Whale without even announcing it. The app is designed to create memes.
The New Product Experimentation (NPE) development team from Facebook created Whale. The team was formed earlier this year to create new experimental products. The NPE Facebook team has added its third application to its lineup.
Whale lets you overlay text and various effects on your photos or images from the app’s collection. Blank, 2-grid, 3-grid, and 4-grid canvas layouts are also available. To customize the images, users can add emoji, text, effects, and filters like laser eyes, vortex or, for example, bulge. Users can share their results on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.
The application is not unique, though, as today we can find loads of photo editing apps with similar sets of features on App Store. However, the advantage of Whale is that it can be used for free with no purchases or subscriptions needed.
Like other NPE Team apps, Whale cannot be downloaded in the United States. Instead, it is currently only available in Canada in its domestic market. The first two NPE Team apps, Aux and Bump, are also available there. Canada was probably chosen because it is a good proxy server for the United States in terms of consumer demographics and user behavior.
Facebook announced plans for the NPE team back in July, explaining that its goal would be to quickly experiment with new ideas and shut down those projects that didn’t gain traction.
Facebook invest money in the development of new mobile social networks when Facebook apps face serious competition from newer publishers such as Snapchat and TikTok. Today, the social networking app market is filled with Snapchat platform apps, like Yolo or LMK.
