Google’s Area 120 creates app to share videos with iPhone-using friends
Area 120, Google’s incubator, has created Uptime, an app to make YouTube more social.
Google’s Area 120 creates app to share videos with iPhone-using friends
Similarly to Facebook Live, users can watch and share YouTube videos, as well as add stickers, emojis and comments. In addition to watching together, users can also get daily recommendations for videos so they won’t miss the next viral video.
“Uptime is a place to share and watch videos together with friends. Easily share your favorite YouTube video and bring friends together to watch, chat, and have fun,” according to the app’s description.
Area 120 further details the app with the features of the product:
- Watch videos together with friends.
- Interact and chat while watching videos.
- Share and curate your favorite YouTube videos.
- Get daily video recommendations from friends and people you follow.
Despite the excitement that comes from the roll-out, the app has kinks that haven’t been completely worked out. Users can’t record a video to the app, you can only search and watch videos. Additionally, there is no private messaging so forget rivaling Instagram’s private share function. The Uptime app is only available for iOS, so Android users are out of luck for now.
Area 120 launched in April 2016 to provide a space for entrepreneurial Googlers. The space was created for individuals and their teams to develop teach ideas and products by using “20 percent time” on side products.
The work on a project for one-fifth of the day isn’t new with the Alphabet entity kick starting it at Google. Projects that have been adapted have included services like Google News, AdSense and Gmail.