Facebook 'Lasso' Short Form Video App Launched for Android, iOS

Facebook has launched a video app called Lasso that enables users to make and share short-format videos with filters and special effects. The app can be considered a Facebook version of the TikTok app that has become quite popular in the past year.

Bowen Pan, a product manager at Facebook, tweeted the launch on Saturday, and added it was available only in the US for now.

Equipped with video-editing tools, the app allows users to add text as well as music to their videos. It is available for both Android and iOS.

"Lasso is a new standalone app for short-form, entertaining videos. We're excited about the potential here, and we'll be gathering feedback from people and creators," CNET quoted a Facebook spokesperson as saying in an email on Friday

All profiles and videos on the app would be public.

Lasso has been made available to US users first as Facebook tries to compete with the likes of other similar platforms like Snapchat and YouTube.

By comparison, nearly 69 percent US teenagers use Snapchat, 72 percent say they use Instagram and 85 per cent say they use YouTube, the report added.

The app requires users to log-in using their Facebook or Instagram accounts and share their videos from Lasso to their Facebook Stories.

The content sharing integration of Lasso with Instagram Stories is also expected to come soon.

There has been no word about the global release of the app from Facebook as yet.

Written with inputs from IANS