A Guide to Farcaster's New Feature Frames: Turning Any Post into an Interactive App—What New Possibilities Will Emerge in Crypto Social?
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A Guide to Farcaster's New Feature Frames: Turning Any Post into an Interactive App—What New Possibilities Will Emerge in Crypto Social?
The integration of Frames with Farcaster is the biggest event in the crypto social space so far in 2024.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy William M. Peaster
Translated by TechFlow
Introduction
Farcaster has recently launched a new feature called Frames. Frames can transform any Farcaster post into an interactive application. This article will introduce you to the basics of Farcaster Frames and explore some of their practical applications.
Main Content
The crypto social space has just taken a giant leap forward. Farcaster has just introduced Frames, a feature that turns any cast (think of it as a Farcaster tweet or post) into an interactive app.
This new functionality unlocks greater possibilities within the Farcaster ecosystem, including built-in airdrop checkers and one-click, gas-free NFT minting directly in casts.
In short, the Frames wave is coming. In today’s article, let’s quickly walk through the fundamentals.
A Beginner's Guide to Farcaster Frames
What is Farcaster?
Basic Info: Farcaster is a social protocol built on Ethereum and Optimism. Users can sign up using an Ethereum wallet.
Importance: Compared to traditional web2 platforms, Farcaster emphasizes user control over data and allows social data to be portable across different apps within its ecosystem.
Getting Started: Farcaster’s philosophy promotes decentralized social media, so you can begin by trying applications built on it, such as Warpcast (similar to Twitter) and Farcord (similar to Discord). Click here to view a full list of Farcaster apps.
Registration: Currently, users with a U.S. phone number can register for Farcaster for free; otherwise, creating an account on Warpcast currently costs $5.
Registering for Farcaster
What are Farcaster Frames?
Latest Update: Launched last week, Frames is a new Farcaster feature built as an extension of the Open Graph protocol (originally developed by Facebook as a content standard).
How It Works: Similar to social media embeds, Frames display content as static or animated images but also enable interactive elements via buttons, allowing dynamic user responses.
Capabilities: From games to quizzes, Frames offer endless possibilities and represent a brand-new way to create more engaging, crypto-centric experiences around the Farcaster ecosystem.
Activity Surge: The arrival of Frames has triggered a surge in Farcaster activity, with engagement (replies, likes, and reposts) increasing by over 100%, and registered users have already surpassed the 70,000 mark.
Early Examples of Farcaster Frames
The Frames landscape is brand new, but we’re already seeing a wide range of experiments. Here are 10 early Frame applications that have caught market attention:
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Chess Trainer: An interactive chess puzzle
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Girl Scout Cookies: One-click ordering of your favorite cookies
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Nethria: A text-based game where players battle monsters
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NFT Gallery: Browse NFTs in-feed via Gallery.so
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NFT Mint: Gas-free NFT minting directly on Farcaster
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Poll Creator: A DIY survey system for Farcaster
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Product Credits: Mint NFTs to earn free product credits
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Song Drop: Music NFT drops via Sound.xyz
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Tenet: Click-through scenes from Christopher Nolan’s film "Tenet"
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Threads: Create threaded content within a single post
How to Explore New Frames
Note that different Farcaster clients will render Frames differently. If you're starting with Warpcast like most people, you can discover and interact with new Frames by checking the “Trending Frames page” or the “Frames channel” (similar to Reddit subreddits).
Additional Farcaster Resources
If you'd like to dive deeper into Farcaster and Frames, here are some useful resources:
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Farcaster Apps: A list of Farcaster clients and apps you can try
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Farcaster Documentation: The official knowledge base for Farcaster
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Farcaster Analytics: Dashboard analytics for Farcaster provided by pixelhack
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Farcaster Frames 101: Official documentation and specifications for Frames
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Warps 101: Guide to Warpcast off-chain points
Over the past few days, I've also come across several insightful articles about Frames. If you're still exploring the implications of this new feature, definitely check out these posts:
Conclusion
The integration of Frames with Farcaster is the biggest development in crypto social so far in 2024. It demonstrates how decentralized social networks can deliver rich interactive experiences while leveraging crypto-economic rails, all while preserving user security and autonomy.
Specifically for the NFT ecosystem, Frames open a new pathway to showcase, mint, and engage with NFTs directly within social media. They provide creators with a new channel to distribute their work and give collectors a fresh way to discover and interact with NFTs.
These NFT possibilities—and others—offer fertile ground for novel user experiences. If even a few of these experiences achieve breakout success, they could help drive broader adoption of blockchain technology and integrate it into everyday online interactions.
Meanwhile, we look forward to more Frame experiments and the release of more DIY no-code tools that will make publishing your own Frames easy.
Additionally, consider becoming an active poster on Farcaster, engaging with other interesting accounts, and fully riding the momentum of this early stage. If Farcaster ultimately achieves massive success, you’ll be among the earliest participants!
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