Is Facebook Starting To Block Non-Instagram Apps Like Vintage Camera?
February 25, 2013
Launched in December 2011, Vintage Camera offers users the ability to take photos, add different filters, and post them to social networks like Facebook, and Twitter. To date, the free the app has been downloaded over 7 million times, and currently has a 3 1/2 star rating in the App Store.
Facebook has recently blocked Vintage Camera users from posting photos to the social networking site. The reason? Facebook says that the move was due to “strong negative feedback from users and their friends.”
But this isn’t true, says Presselite’s Antoine Morcos who provided AppAdvice with screenshots showing the app's feedback information. The documents show that Vintage Camera users had uploaded between 1,000 and 3,000 photos per day to Facebook prior to the shutdown. Of those, just 0.03 percent of users rated the experience negatively.
In total, 1.8 million images were uploaded to Facebook from Vintage Camera since late 2011.
Morcos contends that, “We don't understand how Facebook could block the access to million users of Vintage Camera application who want to share their photos on Facebook, only because of a few negative feedback reports. It is not fair for 99% of Vintage Camera users who were enjoying this feature.”
We are in the process of contacting Facebook in the hopes of receiving a more detailed explanation as to why Vintage Camera integration was pulled. In particular, we’d like to know if the decision had anything to do with Facebook’s 2012 acquisition of Instagram, which serves as a Vintage Camera competitor. When we hear back, we’ll certainly let you know.
For their part, Presselite hopes to see some sort of resolution so that customers can once again post photos to family and friends via Facebook.
As Morcos concluded:
They do not give any details on why Vintage Camera has been restricted, and which part of Facebook policies our app is in violation. Facebook has not been able to provide us the clear reason of this restriction. Also, we want to understand how Facebook could restrict our application with only 0,3% negative feedback, if it's not restricting access to all Vintage Camera users.As usual, we'll keep you updated.