Enhance decentralized social media through Farcaster's fresh "Frames" features
Farcaster has introduced "Frames" to enhance social media experiences by emphasizing interaction. It can be utilized on various applications on Farcaster's network, including Warpcast..jpg)
A well-received launch of Frames led to an increase in attention for decentralized social media. At the beginning of February 2024, Farcaster had approximately 38,000 daily active users (DAU) according to Dune's report.
Get to know Farcaster Frames
Almost everyone is familiar with content displayed on websites or shared on social media platforms, consisting of an image, a title, and a short description. This is made possible by a protocol called the 'Open Graph'.
Example of a content displayed by ‘Open Graph’ protocol on Facebook
Open Graph is a protocol that facilitates Facebook and website access. Open Graph is a protocol that compiles images, titles, and descriptions to create a more appealing display when websites are shared on social media.
‘Frames’ is a feature inspired by OpenGraph. Frames combines static and motion pictures with interactive buttons directly on the feed, giving it a unique advantage. There is also the possibility to display interactive galleries, create games, or enhance shopping experiences using this feature.
Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan founded Farcaster in 2020. It is an Ethereum Layer 2 Optimism-based protocol designed for decentralized social media networks.
The embeds from the current website that are shared on social media and include images, topics, brief descriptions, and URLs may be recognizable to many of you. The "OpenGraph" protocol generates this content display.
A feature called "Frames" was created using OpenGraph. A key feature of Frames is its ability to show both still images and animations while also allowing users to reply to feeds. The result can be polls, quizzes, interactive artwork, games, and easy-to-pay-for shopping.
By integrating various ideas for embedded content in Farcaster's feed, Frames creates lots of new experiences and activities. Unlike the traditional content display, which only consists of text and links to the website, users of Frames can interact with each other and perform a greater range of activities.
Examples of interesting experiences by Farcaster Frames
- Base Quest" is an RPG adventure game in the Quest series that lets players choose messages by pressing buttons. (Click)
Example of a content displayed by Warpcast / Source: Warpcast - Fiveoutofnines created a free chess game called "onFrame" that anyone can play at any time. They can choose their preferred difficulty level, play against other AI chess players, and make moves by clicking the frame's lower button.(
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Example of a content displayed by Warpcast / Source: Warpcast - Placing cookie orders with Cookiecaster on Farcaster Frames
Source: Warpcast - Sell the goods and services directly on Farcaster, an innovative e-commerce option (Click)
- Direct access to Faucets via Warpcast (Click)
A Farcaster Frame can be created in different ways: by working directly with Farcaster (Click) or by learning useful tricks from "Nader Dabit." (Click).
Further development of Frames in Web3
Frames is also being developed by PERCS, and they are enthusiastic about any developments that can maximize Frames' creativity potential. For example, it can be used to develop dynamic educational materials, enhance the community support system, promote a decentralized administration system, and enable PERCS wallet message notification.
Frames enhance Web3 and make it more engaging by facilitating communication between users and creators. Furthermore, it integrates Web3 seamlessly with social media, which is an innovation of great significance.
Why does OpenGraph appear to be more successful on Web3 than Web2 when using Farcaster Frames?
- In terms of multiparty technical collaboration, it is still impossible to fully achieve seamless user experiences on Web2 or any other major social media platforms.
- Meanwhile, Web3 allows multi-party collaboration to run smoothly. Apart from Farcaster and Warpcast, there exist numerous other applications, like embedded trade widgets, the common inline mode of Telegram's bot, and the integrated marketplace, in which the back-end protocol facilitates seamless front-end functionality. Through Web3, users and the mechanisms in the public network are naturally connected through the user experience.
- Once a forgotten protocol in Web2, OpenGraph has made a comeback to power the features of Farcaster Frames, the hottest trend in the Web3 market at the moment.
- From the perspective of Web2, it might not be different from using the command <iframe>; instead, blockchain handles data storage differently. Embedded experiences become natural, as though they were its application.
- Frames have enhanced and made social media user experience more convenient. In the past, most UX was unimpressive or user-friendly.
- In order to accomplish the crucial goal of making Web3 successful, Frames also emphasizes the need to design amazing features unavailable in Web2 and to make most users unaware that they are using Web3 on blockchain.
Farcaster's growth trend following the introduction of Frames
Since Frames were introduced, Farcaster's daily active users (DAU) have increased by 400%. As a result, the number of users has grown from approximately 5,000 on January 28th, 2024, to 24,700 on February 3rd. A Dune report estimates 38,000 daily users as of February 13th.
Source: Dune
When activity on other decentralized social media platforms, such as "Friend.tech," declined, Farcaster experienced rapid growth. In 2023, Friend.tech emerged as the dominant decentralized social media platform on the market. Most recently, compared to the peak reached in August of last year, the number of daily transactions on this platform has dropped by more than 97%.
Furthermore, Farcaster continues to benefit from the SocialFi trend, which was a prominent Web3 trend in 2023 and featured Friend.tech as the industry leader. In the previous year, the Frens Protocol, a project aimed at creating a social network within the Bitcoin community, also made significant waves.
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Sources:
https://docs.farcaster.xyz/learn/what-is-farcaster/frames
https://github.com/davidfurlong/awesome-frames
https://blog.spindl.xyz/p/why-farcaster-frames-are-important
https://cointelegraph.com/news/farcaster-daily-active-users-warpcast-frames
https://thedefiant.io/socialfi-app-farcaster-s-activity-spikes-after-launching-frames-feature
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