Facebook’s internal R&D group, NPE Team, has today launched a brand new app called CatchUp that produces it easier for friends and family within the U.S. to coordinate phone calls or founded group calls with up to eight people. While there are variety of group chat apps available to users today, what makes CatchUp unique is that the calls it enables are audio-only, not video, and it flags when users are available. additionally, CatchUp won’t need a Facebook account to use the service — the app works along with your phone’s contacts list.
CatchUp does seem to require some inspiration from Houseparty, therein users in CatchUp can designate when they’re available to speak by setting their status within the app. this is often just like how Houseparty’s video chat app also allows you to see who’s live, by sending out notifications when friends open the app and flagging them as “here” within the app’s interface.
Similarly, CatchUp shows users as “Ready to Talk” within the top section of its homescreen, with offline users and other contacts listed below.
Facebook explains the app’s intention is to handle one in every of the key reasons people now not make phone calls — they don’t know when someone has time to speak and that they don’t want to interrupt them. Meanwhile, calls that can’t be answered visit voicemails that recipients don’t bother checking, which forces communication to travel through text messaging or chat apps instead. And while video chats are on the increase, a telephony is usually more convenient as users aren’t always video-ready or they’re trying to multi-task, not sit ahead of a screen.
CatchUp approaches the matter of not knowing if a telephony would bother someone by allowing you to work out who is prepared and ready to talk as soon as you launch the app.
Users may create and join groups of friends, family, and mutual contacts within the app, as you’ll with other chat apps. Or they will place 1-on-1 calls as an alternate to using the phone.
Placing a call is straightforward additionally. It’s just a one-button tap — not a sophisticated process of calling contacts, then “merging” calls as you are doing on your smartphone’s Phone app.
Facebook explains the concept for the app actually occurred before the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent quarantine, but the NPE Team accelerated the app’s development as a results of the pandemic.
While there are already easy ways to create voice calls using Facebook’s own Messenger and WhatsApp apps, the difference is that CatchUp works along with your phone’s contacts. Users will must download the app, but they won’t have to have an existing Facebook account — or an account with any Facebook-owned companies. Plus, the app’s simplified programme could make it easier for older users, like grandma and grandpa, to navigate. It’s really just a one-screen experience with a toggle button to become “available” to speak
The app also includes privacy features that allow you to configure which contacts can join your 1-on-1 and group calls.
The app comes from Facebook’s NPE Team, its internal R&D group focused on new app concepts that launch without the good thing about being Facebook-connected. These apps must stand on their own and gain traction so as to remain alive.
To date, the NPE Team has launched alittle few apps, including meme creator Whale, conversational app Bump, music app Aux, video app Hobbi, couples app Tuned, and Apple Watch app Kit. (Bump has since stop working.) However, unlike Facebook’s earlier efforts with NPE Team apps which were launched with little fanfare, Facebook announced CatchUp’s debut with a blog post which can indicate it believes the app has more of an opportunity than others — perhaps thanks to its similarities to the buzzy social voice app, Clubhouse, which has yet to launch but is already getting press.
CatchUp is currently being tested within the U.S. for a limited time on iOS and Android devices.
