Facebook has launched a new app called Tuned for couples to send private messages to each other.
With the new app, couples can send messages, share music and create a digital scrapbook.
Tuned was created by Facebook’s New Product Experimental Team which focuses on creating new social media from scratch.
Tuned aims to be that ‘go-to’ app for a couple needing private space to chat, however, the app lacks the end-to-end encryption of services like WhatsApp.
Rather, Tuned has the same data policy as Facebook, which allows the company to collect communications and other behavior to target advertising at the user.
This data policy could mean users are less inclined to send personal information or private photos via the app.
The app is available only to iOS users in the US and Canada and does not require a Facebook account to use it.
In 2018, Facebook announced it was entering the dating space. The company then launched a dating service to compete with the likes of Tinder and Bumble in 20 countries. But this new couples messaging app is separate from that service.
The new product does not appear to be much different from other messaging services.
Users add another person using their phone number and once they are connected can send pictures and voice memos and the app has new custom reactions that couples can send to one another.
According to the BBC, Facebook formed the group that created Tuned – the New Product Experimental Team (NPE) – in the summer of 2019. Its goal is to create new social media services. It has built a meme creation tool and an app for saving and organizing photos similar to Pinterest.
When Facebook launched NPE it said the team apps were meant to change rapidly and that its services would be “shut down if we learn that they’re not useful to people.”
