The company behind the Tango messaging app launched a standalone product that can be used to send and receive photos with attached music clips.

Tango Music Pix allows users to select up to 10 photos and a 30 second music clip from a catalogue of nearly three million songs provided by licensing company Rumblefish.

Users can preview their Music Pix ‘story’ and share it in one-to-one or group chats and via the Tango News Feed, Facebook, Twitter or email. The app is now available on iOS and Android.

“We’re expanding our ecosystem and mobile app offerings. Music Pix is an example of that as a standalone app that integrates into Tango and while giving people new ways to share rich content,” said Chi-Chao Chang, VP of strategy at Tango.

Music Pix was developed by a new division called Tango Labs, which is focused on developing standalone apps that integrate with the core functionality of the messaging service.

Facebook is following a similar strategy, having launched a number of standalone apps built by its Creative Labs division. So far it has launched content service Paper and messaging app Slingshot, while it has moved its messaging functionality solely to Facebook Messenger.

California-based Tango secured $280 million of funding in March, valuing the business at $1.1 billion and including a $215 million investment from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. The company was reported to be in financing talks in August giving it a valuation of $1.5 billion.

Uri Raz, CEO and founder of Tango said the recent funding gave the company “the resources to expand our team of talented developers and give them a new outlet for their creative innovation”.

Tango launched in 2009 and now has more than 250 million registered users across 224 countries. It is available in 14 languages and works with game developers and advertisers.

In July, it announced a $25 million games fund to support its publishing strategy, in which it promotes games through its messaging platform and through other marketing channels.

It launched a third-party SDK in June 2013, providing APIs and social features such as leaderboards, friend lists, gifting and invites, for developers to integrate into their products.