As Vine celebrates a full two months on the App Store, other video-centric apps are making their public debut, not least of which is Glide.
Glide lets you enjoy video chat on your own schedule. Just as we’ve grown tired of watching our favorite TV Shows live, Glide lets you record and broadcast videos in real-time, which are then saved to the cloud for on-demand consumption later on.
That said, users can still enjoy good ol’ live video chat in real time, but just in case your long-distance girlfriend or your mom can’t tune in right at that second, it doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy seeing your smiling, expressive face in video format later.
The app features live video chat for groups as well, letting you create and store various clusters of friends to video chat with. And Glide also promises that the app’s data usage is “half of what is required for a conventional video call,” with conventional likely referring to a Skype or FaceTime.
You can also send text messages and use emojis, even in the context of a live video chat.
Glide has raised over seven figures in funding, but isn’t disclosing the exact amount it took from stakeholders Orey Gilliam, former CEO of ICQ and AOL IM, and Philippe Schwartz, founder and former CEO of ooVoo.
Glide comes out of Israel, where the app soft-launched a few weeks ago. According to the founders, Glide is working on an Android version of the app as we speak.
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Considering that both iPhone and Android users have video chat built right into their phones, and that Skype is readily available on most mobile devices, breaking into this tough market could be difficult. Especially when we remember that a good majority of users still prefer texting to the hassle of a choppy, low-quality video call.
However, the fact that Glide lets you choose between real-time and on-demand consumption of video could be a boon for the company. And with the help of ooVoo founder Phillippe Schwartz, they should be able to tackle the younger demographics who are gobbling up ooVoo like it’s thanksgiving dinner.
Glide is available now in the Apple App Store for free.
