Facebook's Mic Drop

Facebook had a party in New York this week – a Portal Party – to show off the updates to its smart screens and Oculus virtual-reality headsets. The Portal is Facebook’s video messaging device which already comes with some pretty cool features like the ability for the camera to track the caller as they move about in a room or widen the image when more people come on screen, so you can always see the person you’re talking with. Facebook used their Portal party to demo its newest feature, Mic Drop. 

Mic Drop might sound familiar if you’ve used TikTok. It’s just a lip-synching app, and Facebook’s latest attempt to keep it hip for the kids. It’s got the look and feel of Guitar Hero and allows users to choose face filters inspired by the artists in the songs. Have a look for yourself (skip to one minute mark to get straight to it).

One big difference with Mic Drop compared to TikTok is that these videos aren’t meant to be shared with strangers but rather close friends and family. If you read my previous post about TikTok, I shared my teen cousin’s take on TikTok: “so cringey”. You be the judge as to if the above performance above was cringey too… And if you’re on the side of cringey, think, maybe you'd feel differently if it was being shared in a more intimate and private space, where all parties were close friends. It might even be fun! 

This is exactly why, despite TikTok's rocketing growth, Facebook will continue to do better in the long run. Because the core of Facebook remains about people and connections while TikTok is all about the algorithm; optimizing your feed based on previous views to produce the endless scroll. That aside, I'm skeptical about whether Mic Drop itself will really compete with Tiktok. Because while the idea of “people and connections” might be timeless, I'm not so sure young users would consider using a Portal over their phone.