This live chat app utilizes your mobile phones’ front-facing camera to launch a one to one video conversion. The unique thing about this particular messaging app is that, even though you get to use video, there is no sound, and the two users who are in a chat use text that is overlaid onto the videos.
According to the company’s press release, Livetext “blends the convenience and ease of texting, with the immediacy and vividness of live video, but without the audio — so you can use it in any context.”
You can look at the experience as a way to create real-time personal GIFs with text commentary, but just like with Snapcat, can’t be viewed later.
Yahoo’s senior vice president of video, design and emerging products said in the release:
“Every platform shift leads to new forms of communication, driven by our desire to connect and interact in richer ways. We wanted to create a new way to communicate, blending the simplicity of texting with the emotion and immediacy of live video, to make your experience spontaneous and real.”
The interesting question is whether or not this effort will be enough to let them even begin to catch up with the big boys of search, namely Google and Bing.
Yahoo has even been testing the app for a number of weeks in Hong Kong, Tiawan and Ireland. If you’re interesting in checking out the app, it will be available for download tomorrow in the iOS and Android app stores for users in the US, UK, Canada, Germany and France.
