Facebook has a new product out today called Collab. The app is launching as an invite-only beta on iOS. That’s right, another iOS bundle… Currently, it already sounds like a remake of TikTok and Acapella (for iOS) but it has its differences.

Facebook Collab

The primary feature of Collab is the fact that you can create short-form videos from three simultaneous sources. Essentially, you can:

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1. Perform a single song by playing three different instruments and stitching it all together.
2. Or you and one or two other friends can collaborate together by each supplying one of three parts.

How does it relate to TikTok? Well, for now, the videos can only be posted publicly to the Collab feed. From here, any other user can use it to create a video of their own. Like the Duet feature on TikTok.

For now, you can’t remix the underlying music but everyone whose parts are used in a new Collab post get properly credited.  Currently, you will still be able to share them to other platforms, like Instagram and TikTok. However, that can happen only after they’re posted to Collab since there is no “save to camera roll” option for getting the videos off Collab.

Thanks to its music licensing deals, TikTok ensures posts can sample brand new singles. This plus its powerful recommendation algorithm makes it one of the most popular social media apps on the planet.

This is the kind of engagement Facebook wants for its own app. We do note that Facebook has tried and failed, to emulate TikTok in the past. For example with the likes of Reels editing feature on Instagram and the standalone app Lasso. Hopefully they have something better in store for us.

Being an invite-only ‘party’ the feature is not available to Kenyans yet. However, as soon as it is available, we’ll be the first to let you know. Would you use this app?