The ‘party’ is over for one of 2020’s most popular apps – Times of India

As the world went into a state of lockdown with the advent of Covid-19, we saw a sudden rise in the popularity of video calling apps that became the primary source of connecting people, whether it was for professional purposes or personal. One of the apps that saw a sudden rise in popularity in 2020 was Houseparty. Launched in 2016, many heard about the Houseparty app for the first time recently and this app attracted a huge user base across the world.
Now, this Fortnite-maker Epic Games owned app is shutting down.
This was announced by the company in a blog post where it said that the app will be discontinued in October, however, it will be removed from app stores immediately. For existing users, the app will continue to function until it’s shut down in October.
The company did not give any solid reason behind this move but mentioned that the social vision and core technology of the team behind Houseparty have contributed to new features in Fortnite. “As a result, we can’t give the app or our community the attention that it deserves,” said the company. “We do not take the decision to discontinue the app lightly,” it added.
To recall, right after the Houseparty app had hit its peak popularity, reports about the app getting hacked and personal information of users getting leaked emerged online. This was followed by a denial from the developers of the Houseparty app and the announcement of a bug bounty contest of $1,000,000 or over Rs 7.5 crore.
“We are investigating indications that the recent hacking rumours were spread by a paid commercial smear campaign to harm Houseparty. We are offering a $1,000,000 bounty for the first individual to provide proof of such a campaign to [email protected],” the developer had said.