I hate describing one app by comparing it to another because I find it to be one of the worst ways to bring attention to something fresh. Especially if, the apps in question are conflicting as far as features go. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to do that now with Viddy.
The only way to describe Viddy, is to call it the ‘Instagram for Video’. With Viddy, you can upload 15 second clips which can be edited and enhanced using ‘hipster’ filters. Just like Instagram, Viddy also makes use of a community based social network, centered directly around the media and content uploaded by its users.
Until now, it’s only been available for iOS, and even though it took over a year and a half, it’s now available on Android, as well.
Viddy’s CEO Brett O’Brien seems to think that over the next few months, the Android version will attract at least 40 million more registered subscribers. With just the iOS version, Viddy saw an increase from about 10 million registered users in April of this year, to about 40 million users as of December.
O’Brian recently spoke to Wired about bringing Viddy to Android.
“Being on Android is hugely important for us. It’s a major opportunity for us – it’s the other half of the smartphone world, really. And, if you look at our competition, there’s really nothing like this on Android. There are a bunch of video apps and social apps on iOS, but nothing like Viddy on Android.”
The only other alternative to Viddy in the Google Play store is AutoDesk’s Socialcam. Socialcam allows for unlimited uploads, as well as the ability to share videos of any length. Viddy, on the other hand, only allows up to 15 seconds of video at a time, but users can also take advantage of the artistic filters.
“We’ve spent the last six months building our Android app, and we’re really proud of it. We wanted to do it right, and doing it right required a lot of time to pull off the same special effects, to maintain our UI, our user experience.”
On the issue of why Viddy took so long to appear on Android, O’Brien said, “Android has a lot of technical challenges because of all the different form factors and hardware variation, but it we think we’ve done right.”
The severe hardware fragmentation is part of the reason why developers have so much trouble porting apps to the Android platform. There are so many different devices, each with their own varying forms of hardware, and developers are forced to support a wide assortment of them. After all, you can’t just launch an app in the Google Play store and confine it to certain devices for its entire life cycle because then it wouldn’t meet with success. This is why you see a lot of app developers expanding their compatibility list over time to include more devices.
Regardless, Viddy is now available in the Google Play store to all Android devices running version 4.0 of Android and up. If you don’t have an Android device running ICS, you can still use the web-based interface, you’ll just have to transfer your videos to your computer first and then upload them to Viddy from there.
Source: Wired, Viddy