Facebook launched Poke, an iOS app widely viewed as a Snapchat competitor, in December 2012. The app let users send expiring text messages, photographs, and videos, closely echoing Snapchat’s disappearing-message concept.
Facebook released Poke on December 21, 2012, during Snapchat’s early rise. Snapchat had begun attracting attention with temporary photo sharing, and Facebook’s move showed that established social networks were already treating the format as strategically important. Poke was not simply the long-standing “poke” gesture on Facebook’s website; it was a separate mobile messaging application.
The comparison with Snapchat was especially direct because Poke focused on time-limited communication rather than a permanent public feed. However, the experiment did not last. Facebook removed Poke from Apple’s App Store in May 2014, after roughly two years, ending its most visible standalone attempt to compete with Snapchat’s ephemeral messaging product.
A common mix-up is Instagram, which Facebook acquired in 2012. Instagram was a photo-sharing rival, but Facebook—not Instagram—created and launched Poke.