Facebook shuts down Creative Labs, removes apps no-one used

The Menlo Park, California-based company has also removed the Web page for Creative Labs.

Facebook has pulled its Riff, Rooms, and Slingshot apps from the App Store and shut down its Creative Labs initiative, reports CNET. Slingshot, announced in June of 2014, was an ephemeral messaging app modeled after Snapchat, but with a slight twist.

On launch, Creative Labs was Facebook’s internal “move fast and break things” continuum, where developers and designers could freely explore ideas and push them into the public space. Paper reimagined the Timeline in magazine-style, Mentions is used by famous folks to manage their Facebook followings, and Moments is a private photo-sharing app that relies on Facebook’s social graph to identify friends.

While none of the apps are available for download, Slingshot continues to be functional for existing users for the time being, while Rooms will be available until it’s closed on December 23. On Monday, Facebook pulled three Creative Labs apps from the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store.

Unfortunately, none of the apps had been updated in quite some time and none had garnered much of a following, so Facebook is scrapping it all.

In the two years since it launched, Creative Labs produced about 10 apps.

You’ll be forgiven if only Rooms rings a bell, as neither Slingshot nor Riff ever made it to Canada.