Facebook's New Product Experimentation Team Launches New Messenger App For Couples

Facebook on Tuesday launched its new messenger app Tuned, which allows couples to chat and share timeline content.

The move was part of Facebook's efforts to expand its footprint in the dating world. The app was designed by the New Product Experimentation team, a group inside Facebook that develops new apps and products from scratch.

A Facebook spokesperson told tech news outlet The Information that Tuned was released under its team “to help set the appropriate expectations with users that NPE Team apps will change very rapidly and may be shut down if we learn that they’re not useful to people.”

It is only available for download on Apple App stores in the U.S. and Canada.

NPE described the app on the App Store as “a private space where you and your significant other can just be yourselves.”

Users will be able to connect with their partner to chat directly and privately with each other in a “scrapbook-style feed.” The app can then connect to personal Spotify accounts so users can share songs and playlists without making either being public. It also allows users to share pictures, cards, voice messages, and more so they can “creatively express” their feelings for their partners.

Tuned is the latest effort from the NPE team, which formed in July 2019.

The NPE team first developed Bump, a messenger app that sought to connect people “through conversations, not appearances.” Another was the social music app Aux, which was aimed at teens to put together playlists others would vote on to see which was played. Hobbi was one of the team’s last releases and allowed users to share their activities and projects in an app that was reminiscent of Pinterest.