To test user loyalty, Facebook has reportedly crashed its app on purpose over the years

BY Evan Selleck

Published 4 Jan 2016

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Facebook is one of the strongest entities on the planet, and its hold on users all across the planet is hard to ignore. Apparently the company wanted to put that to the test.

According to a recent published post from The Information, Facebook crashed its Android app on several different occasions to test the loyalty of its visitors utilizing that platform. The errors that Facebook would use could sometimes crash the app for hours. However, it’s unknown just went those forced outages were released, or just how many people were affected by them.

Either way, according to an unnamed individual with information regarding the tests, “People never stopped coming back.” Those users that were unable to use the Android app to access the social network simply found other means to do so, including utilizing the mobile web version of the site. Essentially, Facebook taking away the app on Android devices simply deterred Facebook users long enough for them to find another way to get to their profile.

The reason for the tests appears to be Facebook preparing for a future where its apps are pulled from the Play Store. According to the report, Facebook’s growing competition towards Google is something that the social network considers quite a bit, and foresees a future where its apps aren’t available for Android users to download from the Play Store directly.

[via The Information]