Last week, Cooliris contacted VentureSquare about introducing their messenger app on the site. I tried out the application for a week and here’s what I think about it.
LiveShare is essentially a messaging application and platform for both mobile and web. There are plenty of messenger applications in the market right now but LiveShare manages to differentiate itself from the rest with a few key features.
Mashup of Features
The first impression one gets upon using the application is that it seems to contain elements of a number of social media services such as Facebook, Twitter, smartphone messenger apps etc. The application allows you to do all of the following:
- Send free unlimited text messages
- Upload photos and create photo collages within text conversations
- Bulk photo uploads
- Group / one-to-one conversations
- Integration with other social media services such as Facebook
- Share locations with friends
The following is a short video that takes you through the features of the application.
LiveShare tries to combine the best features in their application. Current messenger applications such as Whatsapp, iMessage tends to focus on pure text communication but they tend to lack a good solution for sharing rich media, such as photos, location and web content, which has become commonplace in our everyday lives. On the other hand, Facebook and Twitter tends to emphasize a one-way broadcast to your network of friends, but lacks privacy and the flexibility to engage in group conversations.
LiveShare aims to target users’ needs for an integrated application. According to Derek Tan, business developer in Cooliris,
With LiveShare, we decided to take a holistic approach to seamlessly integrate messaging and rich media in order to create a beautiful and rich communication experience for the user. LiveShare also provites intimacy of a private social network and gives users flexibility to control their privacy settings with whom they invite into the conversation.
Another plus point of LiveShare is that it works on both the web and mobile platform. Users are given the flexibility to use the application from either platform and content are synced from the LiveShare cloud, allowing the switch of platforms easily. This is a welcomed move as rich media is sometimes hard to view from small smartphone screens and users are able to access the application from different gadgets.
With a high smartphone penetration and a tech savvy group of users, the South Korea market is a natural target for LiveShare. However, it remains to be seen if LiveShare can successfully enter the Korean market. Kakaotalk is currently the most widely used and popular messenger application in Korea and it offers a wide range of functions such as a range of free emoticons, voice messages, sharing of photos etc. Existing competing apps such as NAVER Line, TikTok and other messenger applications have yet to be able to post a threat to Kakaotalk.
LiveShare wants to position itself as a premium, sophisticated messaging app with a well-thought and beautiful user experience around messaging and rich media. Currently, the application is in English but it is looking out for opportunities to drive localized versions in the market.
Personally, I liked the clean and sleek interface of the application. Although the fact that none of my current phone/email contacts are using the application is a downside, it is still a beautiful application that is worth trying out.
If you are using an iPhone, download the app and try out the web version here.