Meta tests standalone Vibes app for AI-generated videos to compete with OpenAI's Sora

Meta tests a standalone app for its AI-generated 'Vibes' videos | TechCrunch

Meta is testing a standalone Vibes app, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Thursday. Launched last September, Vibes lets you create and share short-form AI-generated videos and access a dedicated feed that displays AI videos from others. Think TikTok or Instagram Reels, but every single video you come across is AI-generated. Until now, the feed has lived in the Meta AI app. By making Vibes available outside of the Meta AI app, the company is positioning it as a more direct competitor to Sora, OpenAI's AI-generated video and social app that launched shortly after Vibes. "Following the strong early traction of Vibes within Meta AI, we are testing a standalone app to build on that momentum," Meta said in an emailed statement. "We've seen that users are increasingly leaning into the format to create, discover, and share AI-generated video with friends. This standalone app provides a dedicated home for that experience, offering people a more focused and immersive environment. We will look to expand the app further based on what we learn from the community." The news was first reported by Platformer. Meta says it doesn't share specific numbers, but claims Vibes has performed well, with Meta AI usage continuing to grow steadily since its launch, which it believes signals demand for a standalone app. The tech giant also notes that while users engage with content in Meta AI, a standalone app allows for a more focused experience for creation and engagement. Vibes lets users generate a video from scratch or remix a video that they see on their feed. Before publishing, you can add new visuals, layer in music, and adjust styles. You can then post the video directly to the Vibes feed, DM it to others, or cross-post to Instagram and Facebook Stories and Reels. Meta says collaboration and sharing are on the rise, with many Vibes videos being messaged to friends, which the company says mirrors how people use Reels. It's worth noting that Meta told TechCrunch last week that, in addition to testing new premium subscriptions across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, it's going to explore subscriptions for AI features, including Vibes. Although Vibes has been free since its launch, Meta plans to offer freemium access to Vibes video creation, with the option to subscribe to unlock additional video creation opportunities each month. Meta plans to launch these test subscriptions in the coming months.

Meta thinks you'll want a whole app just for AI videos

The company is testing a standalone Vibes app where everything you scroll is AI-generated. Meta is taking a surprising turn in the world of social apps: it's testing a standalone version of Vibes, a feature that lets users create and discover AI-generated short videos, and giving it its own dedicated home outside the broader Meta AI app. The move, first reported by TechCrunch, reflects Meta's belief that AI-created video content might be compelling enough to warrant its own space on your phone. Originally launched in September 2025 inside the Meta AI experience, Vibes lets people generate or remix short vertical clips using AI tools, then browse a feed populated entirely by synthetic videos. Instead of watching humans film themselves, every piece of content you encounter in Vibes is made, or at least significantly shaped, by AI. That feed has gained enough traction that Meta now wants to see how the concept plays out as a separate app with a more focused environment for video creation and discovery. What Meta wants from the standalone Vibes app Breaking Vibes out into its own application could serve multiple purposes. For one, it gives Meta a cleaner, single-purpose platform that's easier to build around than trying to shoehorn the AI-generated video experience into a multipurpose AI assistant. Meta says that users are increasingly leaning into the format, creating, discovering, and sharing AI-generated clips with friends at a growing rate. Though, to be fair, the company hasn't shared exact usage numbers yet. The standalone app's focus on synthetic vertical video puts it in more direct competition with other emerging AI video platforms like OpenAI's Sora, which also blends social feeds with AI content creation tools. By giving Vibes its own identity, Meta can experiment with features tailored specifically to video creation, discovery algorithms, and possibly even monetization paths like freemium subscriptions that unlock more advanced creation tools in the future. Recommended Videos Meta is currently testing Vibes in select markets and has kept the rollout modest so far, but early interest suggests the company sees a future where AI-crafted media isn't just a side project, but a core creative format. Whether users will embrace a world where every scroll is an algorithm's idea of entertainment, instead of someone's real-life clip, remains to be seen.

Meta Challenges Sora With Standalone Vibes App | PYMNTS.com

The company is testing an app and positioning it as a direct competitor to OpenAI's Sora app, according to the report. Meta told TechCrunch that the use of Vibes within Meta AI has been growing steadily and that the company aims to build on that momentum by making it a standalone app. "We've seen that users are increasingly leaning into the format to create, discover and share AI-generated video with friends," the company said in the report. "This standalone app provides a dedicated home for that experience, offering people a more focused and immersive environment. We will look to expand the app further based on what we learn from the community." Meta introduced Vibes in September as an AI-powered short-form video feed inside the Meta AI app and on meta.ai. The tool enables users to generate clips from prompts, remix existing videos by altering visuals or music, or rework their own content. The resulting videos can be posted to Vibes or cross-shared to the Meta platforms Instagram and Facebook Stories or Reels. "We're working on even more powerful creation tools and models with a number of talented visual artists and creators and will be rolling these out more widely in the future," Meta said when announcing the feature. A month later, during an October earnings call, Meta reported that Vibes' retention looked good and that the use of the AI creation feature was growing week over week. At that time, people had generated more than 20 billion images with Meta's tools, and media creation in the Meta AI app has risen more than 10x after the launch of Vibes. OpenAI launched its Sora app in September, saying the app allows users to create videos, remix generations, discover videos in a customizable feed and drop themselves into a Sora scene after capturing their likeness in a video-and-audio recording for the "characters" feature. "We think a social app built around this 'characters' feature is the best way to experience the magic of Sora 2," OpenAI said when announcing the Sora app.

Meta tests standalone Vibes app to take on OpenAI's Sora in AI video race

Meta plans to test a freemium model, with paid subscriptions unlocking more AI video creation tools. After introducing Threads, Meta is reportedly testing a standalone version of its AI video platform, Vibes, hinting that AI-generated content will be the next big thing. The company confirmed the development, saying that the move follows encouraging early adoption of Vibes within the Meta AU app, where the features originally debuted last September. As per the reports, Vibes will allow users to make and browse short videos generated entirely using AI, offering an experience much like TikTok and Instagram Reels, except every clip is AI-made. Till now, the feature was accessible only through the Meta AI app. With a dedicated app, Meta is positioning Vibes as a direct rival to OpenAI's Sora, which also blends AI video creation with a social feed. As per Meta, the app will give creators and viewers a more focused and immersive space for discovering and sharing AI-generated videos. The company said usage of Vibes has grown steadily since launch, though it did not disclose specific user numbers. Meta believes the rising engagement points to clear demand for a separate platform built around the format. The Vibe app will let users make videos from prompts or remix clips they see in their feed. The creators can tweak visuals, add music and even experiment with different styles before publishing, the report added. After that, the videos can be shared within the Vibes feed, sent directly to friends, or cross-posted to Instagram and Facebook Stories. Meta also noted that private sharing and collaboration are increasing, with many Vibes videos being shared through direct messages, a behaviour the company says mirrors how users interact with Reels today. Meta is also looking into ways to monetise Vibes. While the service has been free thus far, the company intends to test a freemium model that provides limited video creation tools for free, with paid subscriptions unlocking additional creation capacity. These subscription tests are expected to roll out in the coming months, as part of Meta's larger experimentation with paid AI features across its apps.