Skip to main content

Facebook is testing its standalone video chat app Bonfire

Facebook is testing its standalone video chat app Bonfire

/

It’s basically a Houseparty clone

Share this story

Facebook Bonfire group video chat
Image: Apple App store

In July, The Verge learned that Facebook was testing a standalone group video chat app called Bonfire. Now, as spotted by The Next Web, it appears it’s popped up in the Danish Apple App Store.

At the time, the app was rumored to be incredibly similar to other group video chat app Houseparty, and The Next Web confirms this is the case. The app lets you not only hold video chats with multiple people at once, but you can also apply Snapchat-like effects, and share pictures to Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger.

Friends added to a chat will get a notification in Messenger, and once they join, formats can be switched between everyone getting equal screen space to one that prioritizes the person speaking.

The Next Web says as of now, the app has been downloaded about 2,000 times in Denmark with “good user retention.”

Bonfire does align with Facebook’s new mission statement of “build[ing] community and bring the world closer together," and might prove to be a more successful video venture than the grayed-out desert that is currently Facebook Stories. There’s no indication on if Facebook will roll Bonfire out further — back in July, sources had said Facebook was taking a close look at multiple standalone video apps, including Talk.