Everyone knows the sensation after we ship a humorous TikTok video, anticipating a response from a buddy, solely to obtain a fundamental laughing emoji or, worse, no response in any respect. Seen goals to unravel this with its new social app, the place mates document a reside video response to content material you ship them.
The video messaging app, obtainable on iOS units, was co-founded by seasoned entrepreneur Faheem Kajee and actress Karen Gillan, greatest identified for her function as Nebula in “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
With Seen, you’ll be able to ship movies in personal one-on-one iMessages or group chats with as much as 11 individuals. When recipients are despatched content material, they have to document a video of themselves, which is barely considered by the sender and mutual mates within the group chat. The sender then has to reciprocate with a video of themselves reacting to their buddy’s response. The corporate hopes its app will create an genuine and interesting option to work together with mates.
One of many app’s key options is a TikTok integration, permitting you to share movies with your mates on Seen straight from the TikTok app. The app additionally affords a scrollable feed of standard TikTok movies in addition to the power to add movies out of your iPhone’s digital camera roll. Integrations with YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels might be launched sooner or later.
Seen launched on the App Retailer earlier this month and already has 1000’s of customers. The corporate mentioned it has plans to roll out an Android model quickly, nevertheless it didn’t share a particular launch date.
“Our broad objective is making a platform that helps individuals join with each other that feels very actual,” Kajee advised TechCrunch. “[Sharing video reactions] is healthier than simply getting a thumbs-up again. It prompts a broader dialog, and there’s a way of outcomes from seeing someone’s response.”
Kajee is the co-founder of three different startups: beverage firm Second, e-commerce platform Preliminary, and style social app Discovered (previously Pashash). In the meantime, this might be Gillan’s first time founding a tech startup.
“[Gillan] has been concerned in each the precise conceptualization and the nitty gritty course of, which has been superb and really surprising for an enormous Hollywood actress…Karen is basically useful for the distribution stuff,” Kajee mentioned.
Along with having a film star as a founder to assist with person development, the app has acquired assist from notable buyers, together with Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, former Crunchyroll CEO Kun Gao, founding CEO of Rotten Tomatoes Patrick Lee, and others, leading to a complete of $1 million in funding.
Reacting to personal video messages is simply the primary iteration of Seen. The corporate later plans to introduce a public feed to find different customers and can be contemplating the potential for standard content material creators interacting with followers one-on-one to get their reactions earlier than posting movies. Different doable use instances for the app could possibly be stand-up comedians testing out new jokes or seeing a response from an “investor after they open a pitch deck,” Kajee mentioned.
The corporate additionally intends to introduce monetization options like premium choices comparable to video games and filters inside the app. Promoting is one other space it desires to discover, nevertheless, Seen is taking an fascinating strategy that goals to assemble person response knowledge.
“While you’re scrolling via the feed, there can be some content material from customers, some content material from mates, and a few content material from advertisers,” Kajee famous, including that customers could have the choice to react to an advert, which Seen would then collect “anonymized knowledge on features comparable to the kind of emotion, areas the place a person paid consideration, and the diploma of attentiveness.” The reactions to adverts are solely accessed by Seen, not different customers or the advertiser.
“These knowledge factors are so worthwhile, and it’s one thing that no person else has entry to, which makes it actually fascinating,” he mentioned.
Response messenger apps have been a pattern amongst startups up to now–comparable to Collect, Reactr, and Samba–but didn’t seem to take off as founders might have hoped. Now, ten years later, the launch of Seen comes at a time when there’s a rising demand for extra genuine and significant connections on-line, particularly among the many youthful era. The founders hope that this app will deal with the necessity for real interactions, significantly at a time when many individuals are feeling the results of a loneliness epidemic.