What’s the point of multiple apps for Facebook (and other services)?

Today, Facebook revealed the fruit of its Instagram acquisition: an iOS app. Facebook calls its new app Facebook Camera; like the name implies, it's a camera app that ties directly into Facebook. But that's all it does. Its purpose is to make uploading and viewing pictures easier. This makes no sense to me since the Facebook app already performs this task admirably. 

This isn't the first time Facebook has released another Facebook-branded app besides the actual Facebook app, either – just look at Facebook Messenger, which allows you to chat with your Facebook friends on your phone, just like the Facebook app that's already on your phone. 

Notice how repetitive the word "Facebook" is in the first two paragraphs of this post? It's not written that way because I don't know any other words that are fitting for "Facebook;" it's like that because repetitive is exactly what the social network is being. In two paragraphs, I mentioned three separate Facebook apps; two of them only replicate features that are already found in the first one.

In Facebook's defense, the new Camera app does allow you to add filters à la Instagram, and maybe that's important to you. But to me, it seems like a waste of $1 billion if this is all that Zuckerburg and Co. will be doing with the purchase. 

Not only that, but will iPhone users really want to navigate their phones to find another camera app? Why couldn't Facebook have built a better photo viewing and uploading experience into the existing app as an update? Filters surely would've been simple to add, and a minor UI tweak doesn't seem like a herculean task, either.

Personally, I'm trying to find the most efficient way possible to use my phone. To do that, I'm trying to cut down on the number of apps I have installed; the ones I do have installed are multifunctional. In other words, there's no need for extra apps when the ones I already have (Facebook) can do it all. 

The Facebook Camera app is available now in the iTunes App Store for free if you want to try it out.

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