Facebook is done with Hobbi, an experimental Pinterest competitor that was targeted at hobbyists. The app was created by Facebook’s New Product Experimentation (NPE) Team, which is known for testing the waters on different things.
The company has sent notifications to Hobbi users telling them of the imminent shutdown plan. Hobbi will be around till until July 10th, 2020. Before that, users are urged to download their data in preparation for the shutdown.
Since its sunrise in February on the iOS store, Hobbi hasn’t seen much success. Especially when your created is a large corporation like Facebook.
Downloads are estimated to range between 7,000 according to Sensor Tower. Despite the design cues from Pinterest, Hobbi didn’t fully buy the virtual pinboard idea. It was just a minimalist app meant to be a sort of album where users can organize their progress on various projects like say gardening, cooking, arts & crafts, décor, and more.
For the unaware, Facebook’s NPE team, as the name suggests, is a team that helps the company test different ideas as it seeks to uncover the path to a sustainable future. The team tests different ideas, some which are shut down fast, as long as users don’t find helpful.
Some ideas are however carried over to the company’s core apps including Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram.
