New Farcaster ‘mini app’ feature launches on web3 social protocol client Warpcast
2024-09-25

Farcaster client Warpcast launched a native way to develop apps for the decentralized social media protocol. Called mini apps and live as of Tuesday, this tooling system is similar to the existing Farcaster Frames feature, which enables people to launch dapps directly into their social media feeds. 
“A mini app view is a full HTML/CSS/JS webpage, so it's both easier and harder in some ways” than launching a Frame, Warpcast developer horsefacts explained in a social media post. “Easier because you can use a full interactive canvas and any web framework you want, harder because there's more to set up than a simple image.”
Farcaster is one of the most popular decentralized social media protocols designed so users can own their data. In June 2024, Fortune reported the Ethereum-based protocol had about 50,000 daily users.
Dan Romero, co-creator of Farcaster, told The Block that mini apps are specifically a Warpcast feature, “but it can work on any app” built on Farcaster. 
Like Farcaster Frames, which enable builders to make any post on Farcaster into an interactive app, mini apps could be used to mint NFTs, build games and create polls, among other activities. Horsefacts posted a link to a game called FlappyCaster, a popular crypto game where players maneuver a cartoon bird through various obstacles. 
Romero posted a link to a post he wrote on the meaning of “sufficient decentralization” using web3 newsletter and publishing platform Paragraph. 
Mini apps will be able to be launched from Frames as well as “deep links,” a type of URL that sends users directly to a specific page in an app rather than a website or store. For now, the developer documentation notes that only Warpcast-specific URLs will be supported, though the team “may introduce a new Frame button type … if these experiments succeed.”
The system is also tapping Neynar, a Farcaster developer platform. 
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