Facebook has withdrawn its Poke photo messaging and Camera photo sharing apps from Apple’s App Store.

Launched in December 2012, Poke was similar to Snapchat, with images deleted soon after they are viewed. The app was met with a lacklustre response, likely to have been down to Snapchat’s dominance of the ‘ephemeral messaging’ market.

It was rumoured to have been built by Facebook engineers in just 12 days, suggesting it was not a priority for the social network.

But Facebook clearly wants a slice of the market dominated by Snapchat, reportedly having a $3 billion offer to acquire the app’s maker rejected in November last year.

Camera allowed users to upload multiple images to Facebook, where previously users had to select photos individually. It also allowed users to share and view the pictures of Facebook friends, much like Instagram, which Facebook acquired for $1 billion just over two years ago.

The functionality was integrated into the main Facebook app for iPhone and Android and was a major element in the native Facebook app launched for the iPhone in the summer of 2012.

Standalone apps continue to be something Facebook is interested in, with its Creative Labs initiative developing new titles for the social networking behemoth.

The first app to emerge from Creative Labs is Paper, which allows users to “explore and share stories from friends and the world around you” with sections for photos, videos, and longer written posts.

Facebook Messenger, which was spun out from the main Facebook app, has seen some success. It was recently reported that Facebook will remove some messaging features from its main smartphone app in order to drive uptake of Messenger.