Have you ever wondered if you were missing a party your friends were having or an event in your community? Facebook has launched a simple to use app that organizes all of the events of your friends and public community activities and festivals that will prevent you from missing out.
Could it be the beginning of a Facebook competition with Google Calendar? Possibly, but at this point it is clearly a consumer targeted feature, although small businesses and community groups will love the marketing potential of having their events put in front of locals without having to get them to Like their page.
“Every day, more than 100 million people use Facebook events to discover things they can do with their friends — from festivals and 5Ks to neighborhood fairs and nightlife,” says Aditya Koolwal, who is a Product Manager at Facebook. “With hundreds of millions of events shared on Facebook every year, the fear of missing out is becoming a thing of the past.”
The app lets the user pick topics of interest and sorts them by date. You can also view events from areas outside of your current location that you might be traveling to. If any event you are attending is updated the app will send a notification.
“If you’re looking for something to do this weekend or even right now, you can easily browse event recommendations based on time, location and your interests,” said Koolwal. “Explore events happening where you are or in places you like to go using the interactive map. You can also search for events in any city if you’re planning ahead for a trip.”
You can also merge your calendars into the app, although I couldn’t link Google Calendar to the app although I assume that will be added soon.
The app is available for download now from the iOS app store and is coming soon to Android.