Facebook Says No More Poke And Camera Apps

The "Poke Wars" have ended folks, as Facebook has decided that nobody really cares about the Poke app, which was only available on iOS anyway -- it was never released on Android. It's the end of a 10 year run from when Poking was first made available. It would launch to mobile in 2012 and offer users a self-destruct timer similar to Snapchat's app.

However, the Poke app never became even remotely as popular as Snapchat, for which Facebook reportedly tried to acquire for $1 billion in an initial bid and then for $3 billion in a follow-up offer, which was also rejected. Perhaps with the retiring of the Poke app, yet another offer could be made, though Facebook recently acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion and might not be in a rush to spend billions of dollars more on another messaging app.

Poke
Image Source: Flickr (Tom Newby)

Poke isn't the only app to appear in Facebook's obituaries; you can pay your respects to the Camera app as well. This one had more in common with Instagram, which Facebook now owns. You could upload multiple photos and add filters with the original Camera app.

"Neither app has been updated in some time, and we've decided to officially end support by removing them from the app store," Facebook said in a statement.