Facebook to shut down three apps, including tbh which it acquired eight months ago

Facebook has decided to shut down three apps due to “low usage”. The apps are Moves, tbh and Hello.

The Hello app was launched by Facebook in 2015 for people using Android in Brazil, the US, and Nigeria. It enabled people to combine information from Facebook with contact information on their phone.

In essence, the app was similar to TrueCaller, a popular app which finds contact details globally when given a name or telephone number, and has an integrated caller ID service to achieve call-blocking functionality.

“We will be deprecating Hello in a few weeks,” Facebook said in a statement.

Moves is a fitness app which came into existence in 2013 and was bought by Facebook a year later. It records a user’s daily activity — including walking, cycling and running.

At the end of the day, Moves displays all of the relevant data that it has collected. That includes the number of steps taken, the distance travelled, where you've been, and even your schedule - all of it can be viewed on a map.

The app, however, was criticised for gobbling up battery, not unlike the official Facebook app. The company said it will be “deprecating the Moves app and Moves API on July 31.”

The real reason for the closure of the apps may not be what Facebook says. These two apps did not see much development as a limited number of subsequent versions of the apps were released, eventually leading to their death.

tbh, on the other hand, catered to a targeted audience. Facebook acquired the app from its developer last year. The app allowed high school students in the US to send prewritten compliments to each other.

The app was regularly updated and new features were added but it failed to achieve the success it was intended to.