Facebook releases Poke app for self-destructing messages

Back when Facebook only had millions of users instead of a billion, before Timeline and the bungled IPO and outrage over privacy issues, people "poked" each other on the social network. The poke, which is still around but rarely used, is a minimalistic form of communication -- the digital equivalent of a head nod or wink.

Now the social network has expanded the poke into a standalone iOS app, which was released on Friday. The simple free app, calledFacebook Poke, allows youone designed to send messages, photos, and videos which automatically vanishes after a set time period. The recently released Poke app allows you to send a message to one (or more of your friends), and then have it self-destruct after 1, 3, 5 or 10 seconds, allowing your funny but embarrassing image to be briefly seen, but not exist long enough to cause a scandal.

"With the Poke app, you can poke or send a message, photo, or video to Facebook friends to share what you're up to in a lightweight way," says Facebook in a blog post announcing the new app.

What makes this particularly interesting is that Poke is following closely the methodology set by another app — the incredibly popular Snapchat. Snapchat has gained something of a reputation as the app of choice for teens who don't want images to be widely distributed, or to come back to haunt them again in the future. It doesn't take much imagination to come up with what sort of messages that might be used for, but contrary to what you might think, apparently it's not just for sexting. By all accounts, Snapchat's success is at least in part because it's perfect for sending goofy and stupid images and messages around that don't need to be permanent.

Snapchat seems to be welcoming the competition, even though the apps are remarkably similar. However, if you're sending images of a sensitive nature, it might be worth knowing what both apps do when they say they delete them. Snapchat reportedly deletes the image from their servers as soon as the recipient sees it, and Facebook keeps it around for two days beforedeleting the encryption key and then eventually rendering it totally unviewable.

The app is Facebook's fifth iOS app, joining the main Facebook app, Facebook Messenger and Facebook Camera.