( CNN ) -- As the reigning champion of social media , Facebook has adopted a fairly consistent strategy in dealing with upstart competitors : If you ca n't buy 'em , copy 'em . And it looks like the burgeoning field of anonymous sharing apps may be next . Facebook is working on a standalone app that would let users post under assumed names , according to the New York Times . That would be a major reversal of the main site 's stance that users should use their real names or , at the very least , a name by which they are widely known . Facebook 's 'real name ' policy stirs questions around identity . According to the Times , the mobile app , which is due to be released in the next few weeks , is being developed by former team members of Branch , an app that created small personal social groups . Facebook purchased Branch in January . Over the past year or so , apps like Secret and Whisper , which let users share anonymous photos and written posts , have taken off , particularly among young users . Whisper lets users view all posts or focus on those near them , and Secret shares your posts to members of your extended online network but without revealing your identity to those friends . If Facebook is , in fact , planning to launch its own similar app , it would be keeping with an established pattern . Though it 's hands-down the most popular social network with upward of 1.3 billion accounts , the service has seen upstarts chip away at its dominance , particularly with teens and 20-somethings , in recent years . Facebook bought WhatsApp , a messaging app particularly popular in countries where Facebook has n't gained a solid foothold , this year for about $ 22 billion . Facebook 's move you might not notice . It similarly scooped up popular photo-editing and sharing app Instagram in 2012 for a reported $ 1 billion . For the most part , Facebook has let those apps and some others it has purchased just keep doing what they were doing , satisfied with bringing a potential rival under the company banner . Others , like Branch , have been rolled into Facebook 's larger product . But when a buyout was n't in the cards , Facebook has n't been shy about borrowing ideas . In January , Facebook launched Paper , a mobile app that focuses on magazine-style story reading in much the way Flipboard does . In June came Slingshot , a Snapchat-like app that lets users share photos and videos that disappear after a few seconds . And more than a few changes to Facebook 's News Feed , introduced in 2006 and overhauled multiple times since then , have been perceived as an effort to behave more like Twitter . It remains to be seen how Facebook , which has aimed to be home to its users ' `` real '' online persona on a Web with a host of anonymous corners , would police an anonymous app . Bullying , graphic sexual content and scam attempts have all been reported on anonymous apps . A Facebook spokeswoman said Wednesday that the company does not comment on `` rumors or speculation . ''
Report says Facebook working on a Twitter - like anonymous sharing model . Facebook is no stranger to buying , or copying , competitors . App launches expected in a few weeks , New York Times says . Facebook has mimicked Flipboard , Snapchat and even Twitter .