Facebook announces experimental music-making app for iOS

The experimental app is currently in its beta version and available through invite only, and the tool brings together creators and fans to produce, watch and mix and match original videos.

Centred on music creation and videos, Collab gives users the ability to play three independent videos that are playing in synch. “With the app, you can create your own arrangement by adding in your own recording or by swiping and discovering an arrangement to complete your composition. No musical experience is required,” Facebook said.

Users can also make videos using other people’s posts that can then be published through Collab for others to watch and remix themselves. The mixes can also be shared to Instagram, Facebook Stories and other social media apps.

Collab could be used for music campaigns by artists to put out music segments for fans to play with.

Facebook also has music-licensing deals covering the use of copyrighted tracks in user-generated content across its apps.

Since NPE was launched in July last year, the team has released a series of apps including activity-sharing app Hobbi, group call-coordinating app CatchUp, meme-making app Whale and a sharing app for couples called Tuned, among others.

The experimental team has allowed Facebook to try out new ideas and features. However, there is no guarantee that NPE's apps will be officially rolled out.

The team says there’s still some work required to polish Collab. To get access to the app, sign up on the waitlist here. NPE says invites will be opened up in batches starting in the US and Canada and hopes to expand to the rest of the world soon.