Facebook reportedly testing new app that lets you chat anonymously

Facebook reportedly has a new anonymous app in
the works. In a few weeks, it will let users participate
in online discussions under a pseudonym.

After Facebook's unsuccessful attempts at knocking
off the anonymity crown of apps such as Snapchat
and Secret, the social network is making another
stab at letting users share more information
anonymously with a new standalone app it is
apparently working on.
The New York Times cites two sources with
knowledge of Facebook plans who say that Facebook
is veering off from its long-standing strategy of
pushing for real user identities and will launch a new
app in the coming weeks that will let users use
pseudonyms to participate in discussions about
subjects "which they may not be comfortable
connecting to their real names." It's not clear if the
app will allow users to be anonymous only to other
users or if the anonymity will extend to Facebook
itself.
Josh Miller, who owned the startup online
discussions app Branch which was acquired by
Facebook for $15 million, is reportedly the product
manager leading the team behind Facebook's new
anonymous app. The team, the sources say, has
been working on the new product for an entire year
and will roll out what seems to be a discussion
board organized for people with certain interests.
"They were taking a vertical, like parenting or
photography, and trying to get people excited about
them in discussion boards with community leaders
-- like old-school Internet forums as opposed to
community-driven pages," says one source cited by
Business Insider.
Sources say the app could be potentially useful for
Facebook's planned online support communities for
users with common medical problems, though it will
also likely be used beyond health communities. A
Facebook spokesperson says the company does not
comment on rumors or speculation.
The report comes amid a backlash by users of the
drag and bigger LGBT community, which recently
became the target of Facebook's crackdown on users
who prefer to use their stage names instead of their
legal names. But Facebook has loosened up on its
real names policy, with Chris Cox, Facebook's chief
product officer, apologizing to the drag performers
for "the hardship that we've put you through."
Until recently, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg had
been adamantly against anonymity and was once
heard saying that "having two identities for yourself
is an example of a lack of integrity." But the
Facebook founder has had a change of heart, not
likely due to altruistic purposes but because of the
growing popularity of anonymous apps that have
been encroaching on Facebook's user base.
"I don't know if the balance has swung too far, but I
definitely think we're at the point where we don't
need to keep on only doing real-identity things," he
says in an interview with Bloomberg. "If you're
always under the pressure of real identity, I think that
is somewhat of a burden."