How Facebook's new Hobbi app tries to copy Pinterest

Facebook quietly released a new app called Hobbi. It's aimed at hobbyists who want to organise photos of their projects. Here's how it works.

What is Hobbi?

Facebook is no stranger to launching so-called clones of popular apps and services, though they don't always survive for long.

The latest copy-cat app it developed, Hobbi, was recently released by the New Product Experimentation team at Facebook - but without any fanfare. Both The Information and TechCrunch spotted the photo-sharing app, which is apparently designed to “capture and organise your creative process”, whether that's cooking, fitness, or home decor, or whatever, according to its app description.

This description also notes Hobbi can "help you document and remember the things you love to do". If Facebook's new app at all sounds familiar to you, it's probably because its core functionality is quite similar to Pinterest, which has been around for over a decade.

How is Hobbi like Pinterest?

Like Pinterest, you can use Facebook's new Hobbi app to save images and then sort them into specific collections or albums. It also seems to be trying to lure people who like to cook, decorate their house, workout, or do DIY projects and arts and crafts. The primary way the two services are different, however, is that Hobbi doesn't yet have social sharing, recommendations, or search features.

Where is Hobbi available?

Hobbi launched first in Colombia, Belgium, Spain, and Ukraine, according to The Information. It's also now available in the Apple App Store in the US. If you want to get started using Hobbi right away, you need an iPhone or iPad running iOS 11.0 or later. It doesn't appear to have an Android version on Google Play, though we've contacted Facebook and asked for more availability details.

What is the New Product Experimentation team?

Facebook's New Product Experimentation team first formed last summer, with the goal of developing experimental apps, such as the meme-creation app called Whale, a social network called Bump, and a DJ app called Aux. Former Vine executive Jason Toff leads the unit.

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