Facebook Introduced Collab, a New App for Making Short Music Videos Together

Facebook’s NPE team released a new iOS app called Collab, which is intended to be a platform for creating short 15-second mix-and-match music videos.

NPE stands for New Product Experimentation and is the name of the team aligned with Facebook, which focuses on creating experimental apps that keep up with modern trends for consumers. The team has already developed several apps, including CatchUp, Whale, Hobbi, and Aux.

The new app will let creators make so-called collabs, sets of three videos that will play in sync. These sets can be created by recording your own videos or using existing ones made by other users. All the videos posted to Collab can be mixed and matched together to create unique arrangements. The nice part is that you don’t need to have outstanding musical skills to contribute to the app. Users can take part in collabs creation by doing simple stuff and sounds like tapping a glass of water or pulling on a roll of tape.

“Music is one of the most powerful creative outlets. With Collab, we’re leveraging technology to help people unlock creative superpowers by collaborating on original music videos from anywhere. In light of so many folks sheltered in place around the world, we’ve expedited this release,” read the team’s release statement.

Once a collab is created, users can post them to the app’s feed or share them on other social networking platforms such as Instagram, Facebook Stories, and others.

Facebook has been working on the app for a while, but the coronavirus pandemic made the team expedite its release to provide people with a tool that would make them closer to each other while they are self-isolating.

For a similar purpose, the social network giant has also recently launched Messenger Rooms, a new video chat feature that lets up to 50 people socialize at the same time.

However, the app still may have some flaws and bugs, so users are asked to report them if they find any in order to make the whole experience better. For now, Collab in an invite-only beta for iOS users who need to request access to the app by signing up for a waitlist at https://npe.fb.com/collab/. The invites will be opened up in batches starting with users from the USA and Canada.