- Facebook announced that it is shutting down its Hobbi, which is an app for documenting and sharing your hobbies
Facebook is shutting down Hobbi — which is an app that the company developed that appeared to rival Pinterest. The tagline for the Hobbi app is “Document, share and engage on the things you love to do.”
The app was released on iOS in February by Facebook’s internal R&D group called the NPE Team as pointed out by TechCrunch. Facebook confirmed that the app would be shutting down by sending out a push notification to users. It is officially shutting down on July 10, 2020. Users can export their data from the settings section of the app.
Even though some of the design elements were similar to Pinterest, the Hobbi app had different functions. For example, Hobbi users were encouraged to arrange photos of their projects in the form of an online diary. And the app encouraged users to show their progress for each project and add descriptions. Once the project was completed, the app would create a reel of the progress that could be shared on social media.
The app had strong privacy controls. For example, users were not able to watch projects that were created by others. And there was no way to follow the top users. Facebook is likely shutting down Hobbi due to a lack of mass interest.
When Facebook announced the new NPE team, it indicated that the unit’s apps would change very rapidly and would be shut down if the company learned that they are not useful to users. Some of the other apps built by the NPE Team at Facebook include Whale, Bump, Aux, Tuned, Kit (Apple Watch app), CatchUp, Collab, Forecast, and Venue. Bump was also shut down.
