Meta expands vibe-coding app Pocket to all US users

Meta’s experimental vibe-coding gaming app, Pocket, is now rolling out to everyone in the U.S. The app arrived quietly last month in the test market of Brazil and lets people generate small, interactive games using AI prompts, which are published to a scrollable feed. Built on Meta’s acqui-hire of the team behind vibe-coded gaming platform Gizmo earlier this year, the interactive experiences — or “gizmos,” as Meta calls them — respond to touch and phone tilt, play sound effects, and can include clips of favorite songs. They can also use photos from a user’s camera roll or access the camera, and the resulting games can be shared on a profile, where others can save them, remix them into new creations, or repost them.

Pocket is the latest example of Meta’s push to make AI-creation tools mainstream, following earlier efforts like AI-generated images in the Meta AI app and AI videos in the experimental Vibes app. It joins several other standalone mobile apps Meta has shipped in recent months, including Instagram Instants, the standalone Groups app Forum, and the standalone Marketplace app Seller. CEO Mark Zuckerberg credited the increased output to AI-enabled software development on Meta’s July earnings call: “Earlier this year, we shipped Instagram Instants. We also just launched Forum, a stand-alone Groups app, and Seller, a stand-alone Marketplace app. I expect it to become a lot easier to ship new apps,” he told analysts, adding that Meta plans to build out more ideas and use its recommendation systems to scale them.

In addition to Instants, Forum, and Seller, Meta has shipped an experiment involving AI bedtime stories and, this week, a Meta AI app for Mac. With the launch of Pocket, Meta is shutting down the original app it acquired from Atma Sciences.

Why it matters

Pocket’s US rollout tests whether Meta’s rapid pace of shipping narrow, AI-built apps can turn casual game-making into another engagement loop the company can plug into its recommendation systems, much as it has done with short-form video.