Meta is Quietly Launching Pocket, an App for Vibe-coding and Scrolling Small 'Gizmos' (techcrunch.com) 25
"Mozilla shut down the well-loved read-it-later Pocket app last year, and now Meta is launching an app called Pocket with an entirely different, AI-focused pitch," writes The Verge.
While it's not available for downloads in most locations, Meta's Pocket will allow people "to generate small, interactive apps and games using AI prompts," writes TechCrunch. They're called "gizmos", and Pocket "also offers a scrollable feed where you can play with gizmos others have made."
Some context from The Verge: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is all in on AI as the new social media, and he's previously described a vision of how users could use AI to make interactive experiences and share them with people. The launch of Pocket appears to be one manifestation of that idea... It follows Meta hiring engineers from a company called Atma Sciences Inc., which made an app called Gizmo, as Business Insider reported in March.
On a help center page, Meta also describes a gizmo as a "playable AI-generated experience," and when you post one, Meta says you can choose to let other people remix them.
"Based on the app's screenshots in Google Play, there are many similarities to Gizmo's original app, which is still listed," notes TechCrunch.
"Pocket is another example of Meta's push to make AI creation tools more mainstream, extending its earlier efforts, which included AI-generated images created via its Meta AI app and AI videos created with its app called Vibes. It has also added AI features across its social platforms... " Given that Meta has not officially announced Pocket's debut, it's likely that Pocket is still in its initial experimentation phase. Its counterpart Gizmo, however, had generated 635,000 lifetime installs across both iOS and Google Play, according to Appfigures, which noted it had a 98% positive sentiment.
While it's not available for downloads in most locations, Meta's Pocket will allow people "to generate small, interactive apps and games using AI prompts," writes TechCrunch. They're called "gizmos", and Pocket "also offers a scrollable feed where you can play with gizmos others have made."
Some context from The Verge: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is all in on AI as the new social media, and he's previously described a vision of how users could use AI to make interactive experiences and share them with people. The launch of Pocket appears to be one manifestation of that idea... It follows Meta hiring engineers from a company called Atma Sciences Inc., which made an app called Gizmo, as Business Insider reported in March.
On a help center page, Meta also describes a gizmo as a "playable AI-generated experience," and when you post one, Meta says you can choose to let other people remix them.
"Based on the app's screenshots in Google Play, there are many similarities to Gizmo's original app, which is still listed," notes TechCrunch.
"Pocket is another example of Meta's push to make AI creation tools more mainstream, extending its earlier efforts, which included AI-generated images created via its Meta AI app and AI videos created with its app called Vibes. It has also added AI features across its social platforms... " Given that Meta has not officially announced Pocket's debut, it's likely that Pocket is still in its initial experimentation phase. Its counterpart Gizmo, however, had generated 635,000 lifetime installs across both iOS and Google Play, according to Appfigures, which noted it had a 98% positive sentiment.
Who fucking cares? (Score:1)
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When Zuckerberg's initiatives fail it's gotta be doubling embarrassing for him, given the obvious credulousness of Facebook's existing customer base. They've demonstrated again and again that they're complete suckers... yet even they didn't fall for the "metaverse".
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The fact Zuckerberg wasnt chased away from facebook by angry investors with pitchforks over blowing $80 Bil on fantasy bullshit is pretty clear proof that the market isnt just irrational but actively insane.
The halls of power are patrolled by lunatics.
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He controls (both directly and indirectly) majority voting power when it comes to shareholder votes.
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Yes, I'm pretty sure that's the one.
Admiral Ackbar says "It's a trap!" (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't have much faith in the safety of the apps being vetted by Meta before they get posted. Can't wait for the malware Gizmos to start appearing and getting shared in the social like some new STD getting passed around at parties.
Re: Admiral Ackbar says "It's a trap!" (Score:3)
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“Malware Gizmos” is a nice scary phrase, but it is doing a lot of unearned work here.
These are not random APKs being passed around the cafeteria with “install unknown sources” turned on. Pocket gizmos are AI-generated interactive experiences running inside Meta’s app/feed, under Meta’s account system, Meta’s Community Standards, Meta’s reporting/removal process, and the mobile OS permission model. That does not make them safe. It does make the “new STD
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> The real risk is not that Grandma is going to catch a polymorphic worm
Wait! WHAT is Grandma going to polymorph into?
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Can't be more dangerous than other things that run in your browser sandbox. Worst they can wreck havoc on facebook.com. I guess Meta will close such hole very fast, in particular when they may lead to ads being not displayed ...
Vibe-coding and Scrolling (Score:2)
Of course, this is effectively theft (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm sure the TOS will give Meta the rights to everything its suc... er, customers develop. And the name Pocket must be tongue-in-cheek. A couple of things come immediately to mind:
-- When somebody hands you money, you take the money and you put it in your (Meta) Pocket. Expect never to retrieve it though
-- If you have a valuable idea that you develop using Meta's tools, Meta will be happy to pick your Pocket
-- Data breach? Obviously you must have a hole in your Pocket
-- Playing Pocket pool? There's an app for that, and Meta will be happy to Zuck you off when you're done
Gah, the jokes just write themselves!
I wonder if this will get big enough that some FOSS devs will write Pocket Protector software...
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“Effectively theft” is a great way to waste a useful point by stapling it to a strawman.
Meta does not need to own everything users create for this to be a bad deal. In fact, the Pocket terms [meta.com] point straight back to Meta’s standard deal: users retain their IP rights, while Meta gets the license, platform control, engagement data, and AI-improvement exhaust. That is not copyright theft. It is surveillance capitalism with a toy-box UI.
And that distinction matters, because Slashdot is full of p
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Thanks - I should have checked the TOS before shooting from the hip. I guess I got carried away by my Pocket jokes...
It can just watch millions of people prototype tiny attention traps and then build a behavioral graph from the telemetry. That is the gold they are farming, not IP rights
"Prototype tiny attention traps" - that kinda ties in with the video I watched earlier today and have already recommended in two other comments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] Benn Jordan puts a little bit of meat on the bones of the 'post-capitalist' concept I've seen bandied about more and more. The entire video is very much worth watching, but if you skip to 22:45 I think you'll find t
FB is farming intent, not monetizing vibe code (Score:3)
What Meta is almost certainly farming is user intent.
Prompts. Edits. Remixes. Likes. Abandonment. Which tiny games get played, which ones get shared, which mechanics make people tilt the phone, which ones ask for camera/mic access, which ones train the next interaction model, and which ones can be shoved into a feed until the dopamine lever squeaks. Pocket looks less like vibe coding in the programmer sense and more like TikTok plus Roblox plus a telemetry tap directly into Meta’s AI stack.
So yes, be suspicious of Meta. That part is just good hygiene. But “AI bad” is the lazy Slashdot version of thinking. The real critique is more specific: Meta is trying to turn user creativity, user attention, and user interaction traces into training data and engagement inventory. The gizmo is the bait. The behavioral graph is Meta's real target.
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Engagement. It's completely fine if users share their creations. Meta makes the money with the ad next to it, no matter if it's the user's creation or their own. They don't even need to copy your prompt, you are delivering the vibe coded app directly into your follower's feeds.
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Engagement. It's completely fine if users share their creations. Meta makes the money with the ad next to it, no matter if it's the user's creation or their own. They don't even need to copy your prompt, you are delivering the vibe coded app directly into your follower's feeds.
If users create little interactive toys and shove them into their friends’ feeds, Meta gets more feed inventory, more engagement, more impressions, and more chances to drop sponsored units into the attention stream. You got that part right. But the ad does not have to be literally stapled to the gizmo. The gizmo just has to keep users’ eyeballs fixed in the feed for one more pass through the variable-reward slot machine. Same dopamine-tuned engagement model as TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and the
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My thought was, that they do not need to steal creations. They can probably create better ones if they want. But a person who built something and shares it to all their friends creates engagement and it doesn't matter when the creation is shitty, the friends click because of the person sending it. Best if you then give the friends the instant chance to create one themselves, so it starts a snowball effect. "My gizmo" is more interesting to my friends, than the very best professionally designed one. No matte
uh (Score:1)
"Mozilla shut down the well-loved read-it-later Pocket app last year,
Well-loved? How many people were using it? Follow the chain of links and you'll see they never actually say.
"Well loved'?? Who by? The Verge? (Score:2)
Turning off Pocket in Firefox is normal decluttering.