Hyperlapse is doing surprisingly well (so far)

Eleven days ago Facebook launched Hyperlapse, an app for recording sped-up videos with an image-stabilization effect. The new app is more of a feature than a standalone service, and despite early headlines suggesting it’s like “a $15,000 video setup in your hand,” it’s really not all that good at producing pro-quality time-lapses. Honestly, I find the app pointless.

But the rest of the world doesn’t seem to agree.

In fact, according to app tracking site App Annie, Hyperlapse has so far out-performed Facebook’s other side-projects — Poke, Slingshot, Camera, and Paper — when compared to their first 11 days on the App Store charts. In addition, the app averages 4.5 stars in the App Store; that may be a record for Facebook. Ultimately, this leaves us with two questions we’re going to go ahead and ask prematurely:

Is Hyperlapse Facebook’s most successful side project yet?

(Yes, we realize that’s not saying much.)

And if so, why doesn’t Facebook just launch all of its random side-projects under the Instagram brand, instead of throwing them under the bus that is “Facebook Creative Labs?”