Facebook loves to experiment with new apps, so much so that it's got a whole New Product Experimentation team for it. And today that NPE team has announced its newest experimental app for Android and iOS.
CatchUp is a new app that's now available in the US. The goal of the app is to indicate when you're available to talk on the phone so that friends and family don't have to wonder if you can chat. You can also easily join one-on-one and group calls by tapping a "Join" button.
"Based on our studies, we found that one of the main reasons people don’t call friends and family more frequently is that they don’t know when they are available to talk or are worried they may reach them at an inconvenient time," Facebook explains. "CatchUp addresses this problem, and even makes group calling as easy as one tap."
CatchUp connects with your phone's contact list and doesn't require a Facebook account to use (via TechCrunch). The app also includes privacy controls so you can decide who can join your calls.
You can download CatchUp for Android here, and the iOS version is here. The app is being tested for a limited time.
With many people still self-isolating to help fight the spread of the coronavirus, some folks are calling their friends and family more than ever before to check in with them. CatchUp aims to help with that by being a focused app with a simple design to make it easy for anyone to use, regardless of whether they've got a Facebook account or not.
