The versatile secure messaging, calling, music, YouTube, and bitcoin app Wiper announced an immediate launch of its new movie streaming service this Thursday. This latest feature was developed thanks to the additional $2 million in funding provided by the company’s existing investor Michael Choupak, also known as the founder of the cloud email service Intermedia. Choupak was also one of the main people responsible for the creation of the original Wiper app as he invested around $2.5 million in Wiper Inc. back in 2014.
Now, for $4.99 a month, Wiper users will be able to stream hundreds of independent movies overlooked by big film publishers in recent years. While this isn’t exactly Netflix with calls and the company presumably focused on acquiring licensing rights for indie movies because they’re undoubtedly cheaper to get, this is still an interesting addition to an app that is already the very definition of multitasking given how it enables secure instant messaging, audio and HD video calls, as well as music and YouTube video streaming, not to mention the fact that it comes packed with its very own bitcoin wallet. Its name is derived from the “Wipe” feature of the app which quickly erases all messaging history on a user’s device, as well as the messaging history (s)he shares with his or her Wiper friends. Of course, all of the data transmitted between Wiper users is also encrypted, which became a pretty big deal for a lot of mobile users in recent years given numerous surveillance scandals that have been brought to light.
Movies supported by the Wiper streaming program can be shared with friends through messages and comments on their info pages, and the company revealed that 65% of all related revenue will go to their filmmakers via the mentioned built-in bitcoin wallet. Indie movies can be discovered through various categories which can additionally be filtered by length, country of origin, and language. Another cool feature which will probably draw some customers is the fact that 20% of each movie can be streamed to a user’s device completely free of charge. In addition to the Android app, Wiper is also available on iOS and Apple TV in 28 languages. The Android version of the app will also soon receive a video editor for making short videos simply called “Shorties”, which is a feature that’s already been available on iOS for a while. In any case, even though jack-of-all-trades apps often fail due to trying to do too much while not doing anything well enough, Wiper seems like it’s worth a short for people interested in more than one service that it offers.
