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Glide set to change landscape of mobile messaging industry►The video texting app likely to be available on Samsung Gear and Apple iWatch
LAS VEGAS--Shoot videos and send them to your friends with a smartphone, or just broadcast the beautiful mountainous or coastal views you are now seeing in real time. Those mobile video messaging is currently garnering attention, posing challenge against the text-based mobile messaging services including Kakao Talk, and Line.
Spearheading what could be the next wave of mobile messaging, Glide, the Israel-based video texting mobile application developer, showed confidence in competing with the traditional powerhouses in the mobile messaging industry.
“You couldn’t have done it on Snapchat, you couldn’t have done it on WatsApp. You couldn’t have done it on any of those mobile chatting apps,” said Glide’s communications head Chaim Haas, talking about the firm’s cloud computing-based video chatting service with which users could send a video message of up to five minutes to 50 people.
Glide was showcasing its services at the International CES in Las Vegas, held earlier this month.
Once sent to others, videos are stored in Glides’ cloud and can be viewed and deleted weeks or even months later. Glide also allows users to text while watching video messages.
With anticipated updates this month, Glide will be equipped with an offline mode too, with which users can have messages stored without any network connection and delivered to others whenever smartphones are connected to the networks.
A minute of video just takes about 1-2 megabytes and a five-minute video takes about 10MBs in data transfer over the network. There is, however, no need to worry about the smartphone storage since the Glide videos take no space on smartphones, the start-up points out.
Like many other innovative startups, the founders of Glide came up with the idea for the video chatting app out of necessity. When the Glide officials were all living away from their family they all felt inconvenient with video call services like Skype since they had to schedule the time to talk on the apps.
Videos can be shared with other Glide users or to Facebook, Twitter, email or SMS, but Chaim said users don’t even have to worry about accidentally sending videos to the wrong people, as the senders can simply delete the original message and it will erase from the devices of both parties.
“Glide is the only app that puts the power of control into the hands of the video creator,” the spokesman said.
Glide is also planning to bring the instant video message services to smartwatches like Apple’s iWatch or Samsung Electronics’ Gear lineup.
Chaim said the firm has already tested the compatibility of their app on the earlier models of Samsung smartwatches, and the Apple’s smartwatch, which is expected to be rolled out this year.
“We believe that the smartwatch is going to create huge opportunities for video messaging. Because on a smartwatch with a tiny screen and even a smaller keyboard, you are not going to be text messaging,” he said.
By Kim Young-won, Korea Herald correspondent
(
wone0102@heraldcorp.com)
