

Yahoo Offers New Mobile Chat Service Featuring Silent Video - walterbell
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/29/yahoo-offers-new-mobile-chat-service-featuring-silent-video/

======
adrianb
To me it sounds like it combines the disadvantages of video calls (the
attention required, transparency - no lying about your whereabouts, the
intrusiveness - no video call at the office because you might reveal something
confidential...) with the disadvantages of texting (typing is more difficult
than speaking and it's a more difficult way to convey ideas and emotions).

~~~
GuiA
This is a setup that works really well, amongst other things, for
communication between people in long distance relationships (ie it is a form
of telepresence). You get the visceral satisfaction of permanent visual
feedback with the advantages of asynchronous communication.

~~~
dingaling
> This is a setup that works really well, amongst other things, for
> communication between people in long distance relationships

Having had a job that involved distant communication I don't think I'd have
used this approach. It requires high data usage for the video, so why not just
add the audio stream and be done with it?

My wife and I recoded little video snippets through the day and synced them
each evening. Hearing all the background noise and clatter was part of
experiencing 'home' for me.

~~~
keehun
With poor internet connections, the stuttering audio gets frustrating very
quickly. "What did you say?" "I missed half that sentence." "Could you repeat
that?"

We end up just typing it up on the 2nd or 3rd try because the audio keeps
breaking up. There's only 1 more week of this, thank goodness.

------
razwall
This app fills a much needed gap in the mobile messaging landscape.

------
obilgic
This is a great idea!

Here is their official product demo:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-3Mw4Ilvl4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-3Mw4Ilvl4)

~~~
eyalkaspi
reminds me of
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Labs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Labs)

------
thescrewdriver
Quite a neat idea. It's a while since I've seen something from Yahoo that I
would consider different or original. They also have a new Flickr app now
which lets you back your phone's photos up to Flickr with 1TB free storage
which is also pretty neat.

------
vinceyuan
It's weird. When people are texting, most of the faces remain wooden. Nobody
wants to look at a wooden face.

Students wouldn't like to use it in the classroom because video is data-
consuming.

------
bwb
This sounds like just another sign of how Yahoo has lost their minds :)

------
coob
Any deaf HNers here? Would this work well for the deaf community?

~~~
joshstrange
Just as well as snapchat works...

------
Grue3
Seems like the features and misfeatures were chosen completely at random. I
don't care about video, but having access to chatlogs seems really important.
So this app seems like a complete miss to me.

------
jbob2000
Uhh, sorry Yahoo, Snapchat has been able to do video with text on it for a
while now. Their video even has audio!

