Facebook’s ‘Poke’ feature, part of the website since its launch in 2004 but mostly forgotten in recent years in the midst of numerous other updates, is getting another shot in the spotlight: Facebook on Friday released a separate “Poke” app for iPhone users.
But the new “Poke” app for iPhone comes with a twist: Instead of the generic “you’ve been poked” message, Facebook now allows users to send a timed message with their poke, containing either text, photo, even video, to one or multiple recipients.
The content and the Poke itself disappear after the time set by the sender has elapsed — either 1,3,5 or 10 seconds.
The move puts Facebook in direct competition with Snapchat, an app by a separate company that also allows users to send timed, disappearing messages and which has reportedly become the go-to app for teen sexting, or sending sexually explicit texts or visual content of oneself.
Here’s a Facebook screenshot of the new app below:
