Facebook announced it is shutting down Moves, Hello, and tbh, a trio of apps the company created and acquired the past four years. The tech giant states it made the decision to shutter the apps “due to low usage”.
Moves, originally acquired by Facebook in 2014, is the oldest of the three to get the chopping block. The app was created to allow users to easily track exercise and movement automatically by using their smartphones. While it started off strong, with nearly 4 million users when it was purchased by Facebook, things appear to have stalled since. It’s been more than a year since the Moves app has been updated, and Tech Crunch reports it only has 13 million installs. Facebook is offering an option for Moves users to download their data before the app closes permanently on July 31.
In 2015, Facebook announced Hello, a caller identification app that used Facebook’s data to share pertinent information about callers. The app was only available for Android smartphones and worked only in the United States, Brazil, and Nigeria. Like Moves, Hello already appeared to be abandoned by Facebook before the announcement: The company had not updated the Hello app in over a year.
Of the three apps to hit the chopping block, tbh is the most surprising. A social media app for high school students, tbh lets you post compliments about friends and classmates. The app is heavily moderated and removes any negative or hurtful comments immediately. After a widely successful launch (the app hit No. 1 on the Apple App Store), Facebook purchased the app in October 2017.
It’s not unusual for Facebook to discontinue apps or features. The social media company states it regularly reviews and assesses app performance has decided to close the three apps after a long period of trial and error. The decision will allow the company to “prioritize our work so we don’t spread ourselves too thin.”
Facebook plans to close Moves and Hello by the end of July. It has not yet announced a date for tbh, however, it should be in the near future as well. Facebook intends to have all apps shuttered and user data removed from them within 90 days.
