Despite Twitter's big announcement to shut down the video platform Vine last week, the news has not discouraged those who founded the app from embarking on a new venture in video.
This time, the cofounders of Vine are joining in on all the hype surrounding live videos to take on Facebook Live and even Twitter's Periscope.
Beyond The Hype
Cofounders Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll of the once popular video app are currently developing a new video streaming app called Hype.
While only in beta, iOS users can already check out the new app for themselves in the App Store.
The app is being billed as an interactive video broadcasting platform, where users can do things such as send Sparkles to the broadcaster to signify that they like what they are seeing and hearing. This is similar to the Twitch feature and Facebook reactions during Live videos.
Along with also being able to comment during the live stream, users can also replay the broadcast again later if that user makes it available.
Other cool features for the content creator includes themed backgrounds, the ability to present a slideshow of pictures of videos from their camera roll, and add music, emoji and animations to their live videos.
Being able to blend together previously recorded media and other forms of media in a live stream helps to set Hype apart from the competition. While this could lead to too much going on, it could be the next big platform for the meme obsessed millennial.
Then again, it's also risky breaking into this territory that is being dominated by already established apps and Facebook Live. Just take Meerkat for example. At its worst, it could just become the latest fad like the messaging app Peach, which was developed by another Vine cofounder Dom Hofmann and released in the beginning of the year. Peach's 15 minutes of fame is over now.
Hyper vs Periscope?
Going back to the main features of the app, users can also share their Hype videos on Twitter, which means either there isn't any bad blood after the company cut the cord on Vine or that the app's cofounders are now driven to take on Twitter's Pericope.
When signing up to the platform, users have the ability to explore the videos that are currently live and the users who are popular on that given day. They can also tap on the "Subscriptions" tab to see recommended users or manually search for who they want to follow.
Adding the user's own Hype is easy enough by tapping on the plus icon. Just make sure the camera, camera roll, microphone and music features are enabled to get the most out of the user's live stream.
The beta for Hype is currently available for free for iOS, with the Android version expected to be released soon.
Source: Product Hunt
