FB announces Creative App Platform, partners with Smule, VivaVideo & Vita

Facebook announced a new ‘Creative App Platform’ for Facebook Stories, which will enable developers to create and promote Stories-related apps direct within the Stories eco-system. Through Facebook’s new platform, app developers participating in the program will be able to get their tools listed within the Stories composer flow, which will enable users to access more creative apps for their Stories, without having to go find them off-platform.

The most significant advantage for the social media giant here is expanded creativity, one of its key weak points at present, with the vast majority of its Stories features, along with tools for Instagram Reels, being replicas of options already available on TikTok and Snapchat, which leaves it constantly playing catch-up.

As explained by Facebook in its Blogpost, "We initially announced the Creative App Platform back in June at F8 Refresh, our annual developer conference. Today, we’re sharing more about our current partners and the unique value they provide people. In addition to partners that include media editing app B612 and performative music creation app Smule, both featured at F8, we’re thrilled to partner with VivaVideo and Vita, all of which provide uniquely rich and robust experiences for story creators. We’re grateful to these partners for their collaboration and feedback in co-building Creative App Platform with us. We’re also thrilled to be adding new partners to the platform soon - these will include Picsart, one of the world’s best creative platforms, Camera360 and Sweet Selfie."

Although Creative App Platform is still in beta, it is part of Facebook's broader vision to continue to integrate expressive tools from the best developer apps in the world.