You likely spend hours upon hours catching up with your closest friends and family members on Facebook, but do you find yourself having to open a new tab when you want to send a buddy your latest song or short story? Those days are soon to be over, if the new Pipe application proves to be successful.
Developed by a company of the same name, Pipe has the look and feel of a streamlined dropbox application that allows for instant file transfer via Facebook. While users can currently insert small files when using Facebook's built-in chat application, Pipe promises massive transfers of up to 1 GB. This is only one tenth of the 10GB data transfers that are possible over Google Drive, but still a big leap for a website as quick and casual as Facebook.
"We have taken a function such as attaching a file and turned it into something anyone can use - without ever leaving Facebook," Pipe's Simon Howell told Mashable.
Wondering how it all works? Upon loading up the Pipe app, a user will see a digtial green pipe heavily reminiscent of the ones seen in the Super Mario Bros. games of old. The rest is self-explanatory; All Pipe users need to do is drag and drop a document, song, picture, or any other file of their choice and wait for their friend to receive it. The user receiving the file will be immediately notified of the transfer, and files will be stored in virtual lockers when Facebook users are offline. Even if you don't have Pipe installed, Facebook will let you know that there's a file waiting for you.
Pipe has been in a beta state for over a year, and Facebook users eager to send big files can expect the service to launch later this week. You can watch the short trailer for Pipe below, which uses the simple, Facebook friendly tagline "Use pipe. All of your friends do."
Fans curious about the new application can learn more at the official Pipe Facebook. Will the Mario Bros-inspired nostalgia inspire you to take Pipe for a ride when it goes public, or do you prefer the more flexible, powerful options of Google?
