Facebook Reportedly Developing Standalone App Called Lasso To Compete With TikTok

Facebook is reportedly working on a new standalone app that’s designed to get the attention of teen users. The new Facebook-made app is said to be called Lasso and it is going to enable users to record themselves lip syncing or dancing to their favorite songs.

Information on this new app was first reported by TechCrunch. The Lasso app is said to be a direct competitor to TikTok, an app that offers the same feature. “It’s basically TikTok/Musical.ly. It’s full-screen, built for teens, fun and funny, and focused on creation,” one source said.

Lasso is being built by the same team behind Facebook’s Video and Watch services. The development of the app is being headed by Brady Voss, the social network’s principal lead product designer. “Brady is great with fun new camera and video things,” another source said.

It’s very likely that Facebook has decided to create a standalone app instead of just adding it as another feature on its main app. The company is already experimenting with the integration of music into its platform and adding another one could make the app bloated with features that most users might not even use.

It also makes sense that Facebook would want Lasso as a standalone app since this strategy could give the app maximum exposure, as pointed out by Engadget. More importantly, Facebook is aiming to get teen users who have already flocked to Musical.ly, which was acquired by ByteDance for around $1 billion and was folded into TikTok. The service has since reached 500 million monthly active users. Facebook is a lot less popular with teens and releasing Lasso as a standalone product may be the social network’s best bet for it to be a success.

Earlier this year, Facebook was able to secure licensing deals with all major record labels, which made its users immune from getting their videos taken down over copyright infringement. The company then launched music stickers to Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories.

Facebook is currently experimenting with a new feature called Lip Sync Live, which allows users to live stream themselves singing to popular songs. Facebook is also set to launch a new feature on its main app that would allow users to add songs to their profiles, according to The Verge.

It’s clear that Facebook sees the possibility of huge success in integrating music features into its app. Now the company is taking another shot by releasing Lasso as a standalone app.