Facebook
Facebook's experimental software division is back with another new app: E.gg, which it describes as a "digital zine creator."
In practice, the app enables users to create shareable websites that look like a mixture between a high school locker circa 1995 and a Tumblr page circa 2015 — what Facebook describes as "free-form mixed media collages."
These collages are then given shareable URLs, just like normal websites, and are intended to "create a low-pressure space for the really unpolished and mismatched things" that the early days of the internet embodied.
To that end, Facebook introduced E.gg with a website that looks ripped from your old GeoCities account, dancing baby GIF and all:
Facebook
E.gg also comes at a time when Facebook has seen a decline in users — particularly among Gen Z according to Edison Research — and Facebook-owned Instagram is increasingly focusing attention on its in-app shopping features, evidenced by a redesign of the home screen.
With its new app, Facebook is hoping for the type of user activity that used to be common in its products: Creativity and expression.
E.gg is part of Facebook's "NPE" group, an acronym that stands for "New Product Experimentation."
The group, which acts as somewhat of a concept incubator inside Facebook, has released a handful of prior apps — from a matchmaking services to meme making tool.
Like its prior apps, E.gg is free and available now on the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad users.
Got a tip? Contact Business Insider senior correspondent Ben Gilbert via email (bgilbert@businessinsider.com), or Twitter DM (@realbengilbert). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by email only, please.
NOW WATCH: Here's what it's like to travel during the coronavirus outbreak
See Also:
- POWER PLAYERS: Meet the 11 top executives helping DoorDash CEO Tony Xu navigate the pandemic and prepare the $16 billion company for its upcoming IPO
- Instagram is redesigning the home screen with prime spots for TikTok-like Reels and in-app shopping — see what it looks like
- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has dined with Trump at the White House, acknowledged Biden's projected victory in the 2020 election
