Facebook’s new Tuned chat app
lets couples keep their mush private
The app comes from Facebook’s New Product Experimentation (NPE) team, which was formed in July 2019 to create new, experimental social media apps for whatever nooks and crannies that the team imagines are undersaturated with such. In February, the team launched its first app, called Hobbi, which lets users document their creative work by sharing photos and videos. In April, the team launched Tuned chat app for couples. It is available now in the USA and Canada Stores for apple and google play.
As the BBC points out, Tuned claims to be a “private space” for couples, but it’s apparently not private enough to warrant the end-to-end (E2E) encryption of Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging app.
Facebook says that its NPE apps will be governed by its Terms of Service, Data Policy, and NPE Team Supplemental Terms, which it will post in advance of apps shipping. Ditto for the data collected by the NPE apps if Facebook winds up shutting them down. Without E2E encryption, Facebook can access the content couples share on Tuned, and how it disposes of that data (or doesn’t) depends on those terms.
Generally, this app doesn’t seem much different than any other social network where people can chat directly with one another. You could, for example, send each other memos or voice notes with photos on any messaging app, but having space solely dedicated to daily relationship maintenance could be helpful. Other relationship apps have created similar experiences with some offering activities or therapy techniques to practice.
What do you think of this application and will it actually meet privacy between husbands and partners after Facebook was exposed to more than a scandal because of privacy ?!
