How to download Facebook’s unreleased Bonfire video chat app today

Today we discovered Bonfire, Facebook’s new group video chat app, on the Danish iOS App Store. At time of writing, it’s not available in the US App Store — or any other that we know of. If you want to try out the app for yourself, and you don’t live in Denmark, you’ll have to get creative.

For starters, if you don’t actually live in Denmark, you’ll need a second Apple ID. That might sound daunting at first, but it’s quite easy. This page has complete instructions, but here’s a quick primer.

First, go to the Featured page on the App Store, and sign out of your existing account, then hit “Get” on a free app — any free app. You’ll be prompted either to sign in or create a new ID. Create a new ID and follow all the steps. When you have to enter a country, select “Denmark.”

Now, all you need is a valid address and phone number from the country you select as your home country. There’s nothing in the Apple T&C that states you need to live at the address in question — not that I could find anyway. I used the one for the American embassy in Copenhagen, just for fun.

From there, it was as simple as going to the App Store and downloading Bonfire. I was able to use my existing Facebook account and jump right into it from there.

It’s a fun little app, and I enjoyed giving it a quick whirl. I can only contact Matt Navarra on there at the moment, so I couldn’t test it with an extensive group of people. The filters are very fun, and it’s very simple to use, so I’ll probably use it when (if?) Facebook gives it a more extensive roll-out.