On Wednesday, Yahoo announced that it would be releasing a new messaging app that takes the best part of all the messaging apps before it. It’s called Livetext and it lets users see each other but not hear each other.
Yahoo’s Frankenstein
Livetext takes features from FaceTime, Skype, Snapchat, Meerkat, and Periscope and combines them to create a messaging app that doesn’t exist to compete with these platforms but complement them.
Adam Cahan, senior vice president of video, design, and emerging products of Yahoo, believes that audio can be inhibiting in some situations where you may want to see who you are communicating with, but can’t audibly talk to them.
With that in mind, Livetext allows users to chat via text and emojis like Periscope, it doesn’t archive media or other files like Snapchat, and it organizes contact lists and friend quests similar to Facebook Messenger and Snapchat.
Yahoo Doesn’t Believe Livetext is a Competitor to Its Peers
Cahan believes that Livetext serves a niche that will be carved out once people begin to see how useful it can be. If a user is commuting to work via public transportation and they want to FaceTime someone, it can be difficult to accomplish in such a noisy environment. Similarly, there are sometimes when a user doesn’t want to communicate solely via text and may want to see who they are talking to. Situations like these are what Yahoo hopes users will take advantage of by using Livetext.
“And what we found in our user studies and testing was that they found new times to use the product, starting to engage more and more frequently, and having more and more conversations on our service. They definitely get it,” said Cahan.
Livetext Will be Launching July 30
Last quarter, Yahoo reported that 20% of its revenue came from mobile. Historically, it hasn’t been interested in pursuing many social services, but it looks like that may soon begin to change as Yahoo bolsters its communication services with Livetext.
Yahoo said users in the United States and four other countries can begin to download the app on their Android and iOS devices on thursday.
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