[pavlov]

Thing is, these were intentionally created as experiments with the expectation that they would be eventually shut down, with whatever learnings integrated into the mainline apps.

Since about 2017-18 there has been a unit at Facebook called NPE, New Product Experimentation, tasked with producing these.

[john_max_1]

You mean Mark Zuckerberg added his voice to Poke knowing that the app wouldn't even exist in a few years?

https://techcrunch.com/2012/12/21/mark-zuckerberg-voice-of-p...

[pavlov]

That's from 2012. NPE was created around 2017-18 (I don't remember exactly).

[john_max_1]

NPE was created in 2017. Facebook had "Labs" in 2011-12. The same idea keeps showing up again and again every few years thanks to a hugely profitable ads business.