Meet Seen, a new app for friends to record reactions to TikToks and other content

Everyone knows the sensation after we ship a humorous TikTok video, anticipating a response from a good friend, solely to obtain a fundamental laughing emoji or, worse, no response in any respect. Seen goals to resolve this with its new social app, the place buddies file a reside video response to content material you ship them. 

The video messaging app, accessible on iOS gadgets, was co-founded by seasoned entrepreneur Faheem Kajee and actress Karen Gillan, finest identified for her function as Nebula in “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

With Seen, you may ship movies in non-public one-on-one iMessages or group chats with as much as 11 individuals. When recipients are despatched content material, they need to file a video of themselves, which is simply considered by the sender and mutual buddies within the group chat. The sender then has to reciprocate with a video of themselves reacting to their good friend’s response. The corporate hopes its app will create an genuine and fascinating option to work together with buddies.

One of many app’s key options is a TikTok integration, permitting you to share movies with your mates on Seen instantly from the TikTok app. The app additionally presents a scrollable feed of widespread TikTok movies in addition to the flexibility to add movies out of your iPhone’s digicam roll. Integrations with YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels will likely be launched sooner or later. 

Seen launched on the App Store earlier this month and already has hundreds of customers. The corporate stated it has plans to roll out an Android model quickly, however it didn’t share a selected launch date. 

“Our broad aim is making a platform that helps individuals join with each other that feels very actual,” Kajee informed TechCrunch. “[Sharing video reactions] is healthier than simply getting a thumbs-up again. It prompts a broader dialog, and there’s a way of outcomes from seeing someone’s response.” 

Kajee is the co-founder of three different startups: beverage firm Moment, e-commerce platform Preliminary, and vogue social app Discovered (previously Pashash). In the meantime, this will likely be Gillan’s first time founding a tech startup. 

“[Gillan] has been concerned in each the precise conceptualization and the nitty gritty course of, which has been wonderful and really sudden for an enormous Hollywood actress…Karen is admittedly useful for the distribution stuff,” Kajee stated. 

Along with having a film star as a founder to assist with consumer development, the app has obtained help from notable traders, together with Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, former Crunchyroll CEO Kun Gao, founding CEO of Rotten Tomatoes Patrick Lee, and others, leading to a complete of $1 million in funding. 

Reacting to non-public video messages is simply the primary iteration of Seen. The corporate later plans to introduce a public feed to find different customers and can also be contemplating the opportunity of widespread content material creators interacting with followers one-on-one to get their reactions earlier than posting movies. Different potential use instances for the app might be stand-up comedians testing out new jokes or seeing a response from an “investor after they open a pitch deck,” Kajee stated. 

The corporate additionally intends to introduce monetization options like premium choices equivalent to video games and filters inside the app. Promoting is one other space it desires to discover, nevertheless, Seen is taking an fascinating strategy that goals to assemble consumer response knowledge. 

“While you’re scrolling by means of the feed, there could be some content material from customers, some content material from buddies, and a few content material from advertisers,” Kajee famous, including that customers can have the choice to react to an advert, which Seen would then collect “anonymized knowledge on features equivalent to the kind of emotion, areas the place a person paid consideration, and the diploma of attentiveness.” The reactions to advertisements are solely accessed by Seen, not different customers or the advertiser. 

“These knowledge factors are so precious, and it’s one thing that no one else has entry to, which makes it actually fascinating,” he stated.

Reaction messenger apps have been a pattern amongst startups prior to now–equivalent to Gather, Reactr, and Samba–but didn’t seem to take off as founders might have hoped. Now, ten years later, the launch of Seen comes at a time when there’s a rising demand for extra genuine and significant connections on-line, particularly among the many youthful era. The founders hope that this app will tackle the necessity for real interactions, significantly at a time when many individuals are feeling the consequences of a loneliness epidemic.