Facebook has decided to officially replace the “Maybe” option with an “Interested” button on public events. The “Maybe” button will, however, still be available for private Facebook events. The change should be reflected on every Facebook account now.
A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the development to The Next Web. Facebook began testing the “Interested” button back in 2013. It has been available to a limited number of users for the past few weeks and now, everyone should be able to mark a public event as “Interested”. The “Maybe” option had an element uncertainty to it. The “Interested” option will notify the organiser that you are interested in attending the event, but may not be able to decide on it yet. Users will get all the notifications pertaining to the event by selecting the option. Organisers are also likely to receive more responses to the event RSVP.
Facebook is also looking to improve its Events feature by adding more functionality. It has already introduced the “Read Receipts” feature for private events, where the host will be able to see all those who have received and gone through the invite. It is similar to how the read receipts work in Messenger. In the future, users will be able to share an event from the Messenger app itself. Facebook is also exploring the option of enabling event promoters to invite contacts who are not on Facebook, through email. However, it will be a while before anything like that is introduced.
There is also a possibility of Events being developed as a standalone product, with a separate app. Facebook is no stranger to developing independent apps for some core features of the site. The Messenger app is a standalone product that can be used separately. Earlier this year, the company released a web interface of Messenger, that can be accessed from a browser. In June, it launched Moments, a private photo sharing app. It is a standalone mobile app, that can be used to share private photos of an event between friends. It uses Facebook’s face-detection algorithm to identify people. It can automatically create music videos from the photos, which can be shared on the user’s timeline.