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Houseparty, a video chat app that gained popularity when lockdowns were first imposed last year, is going to shut down.
The platform allows people to virtually go to video chat rooms with friends and saw increased demand during the first wave of Covid restrictions, reporting 50 million signups in a month. Houseparty is owned by the same company that makes Fortnite and was incorporated into the hit game last year, allowing users to have video chats while playing.
The CEO of the app had described Houseparty as “the best thing to do in real life” and it became even more popular when meeting friends became impossible for much of 2020.
Announcing the shutdown, Houseparty owner Epic Games said he could no longer “give the app or our community the attention it deserves.”
“We are not making the decision to shut down the app lightly,” said Epic Games. “The team behind Houseparty is working to create new ways to have meaningful and authentic social interactions on a metaverse scale across the Epic Games family.”
In its heyday, Houseparty was hit by an unproven social media rumor that claimed the app had caused users’ other online accounts to be hacked, including Netflix, eBay, Instagram, and Spotify. Epic then offered a $ 1million (£ 720,000) reward to anyone who could prove they were targeted by a smear campaign, although the bounty was not claimed.
The company immediately removed the software from all app stores, before completely shutting down in October to all remaining users who still installed it.
Epic acquired Houseparty for $ 35 million in 2019, but it’s now focused on the new buzzword in tech, the metaverse, or the shared virtual reality space in which the real and digital worlds are blurry. .
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