My New App: FlyBy Messenger
It’s no secret that I’m kind of a luddite. I signed up for Facebook 2 years after all my friends. My old roommate made me a twitter account while I dragged my feet. I’ve never even illegally downloaded anything…because I’m totally freaking scared of technology.
So when this company called FlyBy approached me about being a Beta tester for their new app and creating content that utilizes visual recognition software… I lied through my teeth and acted like it was no problem 🙂
And I’m SO glad that I did because it was super fun.
Here’s the 411. FlyBy Messenger (which you can download in the app store now!) uses visual recognition software to tag locations.
Unlike a lot of social media platforms which can be quite anti-social, FlyBy is all about engaging with your surroundings on a deeper level.
It works in a couple ways…
1) Say you’re in line, waiting to get a juice at The Squeeze Truck in union square and it’s taking a minute. You can open the FlyBy app and see if anyone has left any videos in that location. When someone leaves a video, they create a sitekey. So you You point your phone at the designated image and it will unlock a video for you to watch. It might be funny, it might be informational, it might just be capturing a cool moment that happened there. Either way, it can make you more connected to your location while you’re killing time.
2) Say you follow me on FlyBy (and I recommend that you do!) you will get a little buzz in your pocket if you walk by a location where I’ve left a video. Then you can open the app, look for the sitekey and see what I had to say about that place.
I specifically made video content about healthy places around NYC. I wanted to tell people what I loved so much about the location and what my favorite healthy things are to order, buy, etc.
Take a peek at the videos below and let me know what you think! Keep in mind they were all shot on my iPhone with zero editing.
[In my grandma voice] I remember when twitter first started, that new fangled-y thing! [shakes cane at sky].
I’m so genuinely interested in seeing how this evolves! I know the users will shape it into what it needs to be, since I’m usually such a late adopter I’m thrilled that I got to get in on this early.
Does this sound like the kind of app you’d be interested in? What appeals (or does not appeal) to you?
Whole Foods
