Facebook has just launched Riff, an app aimed at helping friends create collaborative videos – and even the next viral hit.

Riff it up

Facebook announced the news in a blog post.

"Recently, a few Facebook employees stayed after-hours to work on a side project.

"Our hunch was that if you could make videos collaboratively, the creative process would be more fun and the final product would be cooler," wrote Facebook Product Manager Josh Miller.

Share to share

Here's how it works: you shoot a video up to 20 seconds long in Riff, then give the clip a title which outlines what other users should add to it.

For example, "Wish Dad a Happy Birthday", or "Show what you're eating for lunch". 

Fellow Riffers then get a notification the video is up, along with an invitation to contribute. Each contributor's clip is added to the end of the existing video, then contributors send the video to an even wider range of friends.

To get an idea of how it might look, check out this video the cast of An American in Paris on Broadway recently made. 

Once complete the video can be shared on Facebook and across the web.

Viral voices

While Facebook's experiments into apps haven't always been warmly embraced (remember Slingshot?) it does reflect the platform's growing interest in video, and specifically user-generated video.

If it takes off, expect similar features coming to Facebook soon.

Riff is now available on iOS and Android. To find out more visit newsroom.fb.com.