Palms on with Livetext, Yahoo’s silent fresh movie talk app
A duo of weeks ago, we wrote that Yahoo had calmly released Livetext, its fresh messenger app, and was testing it in Hong Kong. The company must have been pleased, because as of today Livetext will be available in five fresh countries — the United States, the UK, Canada, Germany, and France.
Livetext is a live movie talk app with a key difference: there’s no audio. "While texting is quick and effortless, you often miss the meaning of a message, have to explain your reaction ("LOL"), or wait hours before getting a response," Yahoo wrote in a blog post introducing Livetext. (LOL.) "And to actually talk on the phone, you not only have to be available, but you also have to be in a place where you can talk." Livetext aims to bridge that gap with live, real-time movie that you can then type over. More to the point, it aims to introduce something novel and joy into a very crowded market for messaging apps.
On firing up the app, you’re asked to verify your phone number, as well as to give Livetext access to your photos. (You’re required to upload a picture when you very first set up your profile — no anonymous humanoid silhouettes for Livetext.) You’ll need to give it access your camera as well. You can then either add contacts by their Livetext ID, if you know it, or by syncing your contact list to see which of your friends are already using it. Livetext shows you your friends’ profile pictures as little circles — you tap a friend’s picture to commence talking.
Quick, joy and individual
When Yahoo says Livetext is live, they mean it. As soon as you tap a friend’s name, you’re on camera, and your friend will receive a notification telling them that you’ve commenced a talk and are typing to them. You then wait for your friend to join the movie talk, upon which a bar emerges at the top of the screen, informing you that the movie is now live. Typed messages on Livetext look pretty similar to the way they do on Snapchat — except instead of typing over a still picture, you’re typing (and emoji-ing) all over your friend’s face. The movie starts off using the front-facing camera, but you can switch to use the rear-facing camera by simply tapping on the screen.
Unlike Snapchat’s somewhat confusing live movie feature, you don’t have to keep your thumb pressed down on the screen to maintain the movie connection. But it isn’t ideal: Livetext’s keyboard takes up about half the screen, and you can’t budge the petite circle that shows your own face. That circle is also indeed petite — if you want to display your friend something that you’re looking at, it can be difficult to tell what you’ve captured in the framework. But your talks shouldn’t come back to haunt you — as on Snapchat, messages and movies are ephemeral, and are deleted as soon as both parties exit the talk.
It’s like passing secret notes to your best friend in class
When we very first wrote about Livetext, the silent movie feature seemed a little strange. Isn’t the entire point of movie to be able to see and hear what’s going on somewhere else? But upon using the app, it makes more sense. Often, text is the easiest and most convenient way to talk to someone, but it can lack nuance and lead to misunderstandings.
How often have you received a text that says nothing but "Ok." and felt an irrational sense of funk and annoyance? A mysteriously placed period can have so much power over your mood. And yet, you can’t truly justify calling the person over it, or you don’t want to be the person making a private call in a public place. Livetext fixes both those problems — that "Ok." loses its nibble when you can see your friend grinning and nodding back at you. There’s also a sense of harmless silliness to the app, reminiscent of passing secret notes to your best friend in class and watching them silently crack up.
If old-school texting, Snapchat, and Beme all got inebriated one night and had a baby, it would very likely be something like Livetext — quick, private, and kind of joy. Less certain is whether it will ever come to feel essential. For now tho’, Livetext at least feels novel — and for Yahoo, that’s a win.