Facebook has a lot of apps to cover different needs, purposes and demographics. Some are good, but some simply aren't.
One of them, is Moments. The standalone app that was launched back in 2015, allows users to privately share photos with their friends, without actually uploading the photos to Facebook.
The concept, which is pretty much like Google Photos, which enables people to easily share photos to a group o people in an easier manner.
But the thing is, the app didn't get much attention and not that many people are using it.
For this reason, Facebook said that it is discontinuing the app on February 25th, 2019.
According to Rushabh Doshi, director of product management for Moments:
For good reasons, users may want to export their photos and videos before Facebook finally closes Moments.
Here, Facebook offers two export options.
The first, users can access the website version of the Moments app and create a private album on their Facebook account to home those photos and videos, and the second option is to download everything to their devices.
If users choose the first option, Facebook will create a link next to each moment that is ready to view as an album on Facebook. And for those who opt to download their data, they have to enter their Facebook password.
They will see their files shown along their sizes, and here, users can select the quality (high, medium or low) of the files. The Moments app will then email a link and notify users on Facebook when the data is ready to be downloaded.
Facebook had high hopes for Moments.
Shortly after launching it, the social media even killed its Photo Sync feature to favor this app. Facebook has also expanded Moments to the web, and added support for full-resolution photos.
But still, Moments was having a tough competition in the market. With the many apps doing things similarly, Moments was led to its demise.
Facebook said that it's shutting down the app because not many people are using it, though the company declined to share user numbers. But according to mobile analytic firm Sensor Tower, the app has been installed by 87 million users on Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store since the service's first inception
At its peak, the app was downloaded 10.7 million times in June 2016. That declined to about 150,000 downloads in December 2018.
Facebook is also dealing with a lot of bigger challenges. In 2018, the social media network faced mishaps after mishaps, from fake news problems to major security breaches.
From a product standpoint, Facebook launches and terminates standalone apps all the time. But for the company that is dealing with a multitude of PR madness, it may be wise for the company to focus on improving security and trust, rather than wasting time on an app that never really took off.