Facebook kills Creative Labs, pulls out Slingshot, Rooms and Riff

Facebook has announced to shutter down its Creative Labs division that is responsible for apps such as Slingshot , Riff and Rooms . Moreover, the company has also pulled out all three apps from the Play Store. Facebook has cited reasons such as most of the features in these apps are already available in the Facebook app. These apps haven’t been updated either, making them almost redundant. “Since their launches, we’ve incorporated elements of Slingshot, Riff, and Rooms into the Facebook for iOS and Android apps. We haven’t updated these apps in some time and we’ve decided to officially end support by removing them from the App Store and Google Play,” Facebook spokesperson told TheVerge. Facebook had launched Slingshot last year to compete with Snapchat. Snapchat, an app allowing users to send messages that automatically disappear after a few seconds, turned down a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook. Riff has launched this year to compete with Meerkat and Twitter’s live video streaming app Periscope. The Riff app let users create collaborative videos with their friends. The Rooms app let people create virtual “rooms” to chat about whatever they wish using any name they would like.