Social networking giant Facebook is reportedly developing a stand-alone camera app to allow its users to create and share more photos and videos.
A prototype of the camera app developed by Facebook showed a similarity with image messaging app Snapchat, according to sources cited by The Wall Street Journal.
The sources also pointed to a feature which would allow users to live stream video content.
However, the project, which is currently in its early stages of development, may fail to come to "fruition," sources said.
The move reveals the internal "anxiety" in the company over the rising "passive behavior" on the networking site. While Facebook sees many of its 1.6 billion users visiting its site daily or many times during a day, only few of them share photos, videos and update their status.
Reversing the changing behaviour of its users has become a priority for the company.
Declining to comment on the development of the camera app, a Facebook spokeswoman told the publication that the overall level of sharing photos, videos and status updates remained "strong" and at the same levels seen in the past.
Facebook has launched a few camera apps in the past, but later removed them after failing to see intended acceptance among its users.
In June 2014, it rolled out Slingshot, a Snapchat-like app, enabling users to trade photos and videos that vanished after 24 hours. Prior to this launch, the company offered a photo-editing and sharing app named Camera. Facebook did not get much user response for both the apps.
The camera app is only one of Facebook’s efforts to deal with a drop in sharing. The company launched many features to increase sharing in the past year.
Earlier this month, Facebook partnered with the UK Electoral Commission to remind voters to register. This followed similar reminder last year ahead of the UK General Election, which resulted in over 15 million people viewing the registration reminder.
