Facebook Plans New "Experimental" Apps For Android, iOS, And Web

After almost 15 years of existence, Facebook has now transformed itself into something more than a social network. Per the latest updates, the social media giant is planning to have a new skunkworks division which would go by the name NPE Team, LLC.

NPE stands for New Product Experimentation. In its blog post, Facebook says it will release experimental apps to the public under the developer name “NPE Team, from Facebook.”

These apps will be made available for Android and iOS on their respective app stores. Facebook will also develop some web apps under the new platform.

This effort is similar to what we see at Microsoft Garage, where various experimental apps created by MS employees are published. If any of them get a good response, Microsoft releases it as an official product after necessary changes.

Anyway, given the fire it’s facing on the privacy front, Facebook didn’t forget to mention how the NPE apps will collect and handle user data. Without explaining much, the company points towards the links to its Terms of Service and Data Policy.

Facebook is also writing down the NPE Team Supplemental Terms, which will be released in the coming weeks. As far as data collection is concerned, Facebook said that “no apps are live yet.” So, it could be assumed that it will vary from app to app.

Whenever an NPE app shuts down, Facebook would notify users of what happens to their data. Also, some of the experimental might use the ‘Login with Facebook” button and users will be able to delete such apps from the “Apps and Websites” section of their Facebook accounts.

In the past, Facebook has tried to take the chance and release apps which weren’t well received by the public. Coming up with an entirely new platform makes sense for both the company and the users who wouldn’t expect that such apps would work flawlessly.

Facebook will start releasing the NPE apps in the coming days. So, stay tuned for any future updates.