Nine months ago, Twitvid rebranded itself as Telly, as the company sought to help users find interesting videos based on things their friends were sharing. Since that rebranding, it’s launched a web app for video discovery, as well as apps for mobile users. Today, the startup is updating its iPhone app, adding a few features that it hopes will improve the user experience and make it easier for viewers to share.
The biggest new feature of the app is the ability to group-share content. Since users don’t always want to share what they’re watching with everyone they’re connected to on Telly, or even on social networks like Facebook or Twitter, the new version of the app allows them to specify groups of people they’d like to share with. Videos can be shared via email or SMS.
If someone that a video has been shared with has the Telly app, they’ll be able to join a conversation with others who have been invited along. Otherwise, they’ll be able to view the video through a web or mobile web landing page. Users can also tag each other in videos to let others know when they show up in one.
Telly has also updated its notifications center to provide users with a better view into what interactions are happening with friends and connections on the app. They’ll be able to see all the likes, shares, and comments that have happened with their videos, all in one place.
All those features are focused on helping Telly to build and engage with its community, but the company has also been working on making it easier to view and create videos. The iPhone app now has a “carousel view,” which gets initiated when a viewer turns their iPhone into landscape mode. When that happens, they’ll get more of a lean-back type of continuous video feed, which they can swipe through videos back and forth.
The startup also improved the Create experience, adding new filters to enable users to enhance their videos. In addition, it’s added a Vine-like pause and resume feature for users who are recording videos. Finally, it’s streamlined the sharing process, narrowing the number of steps it takes to upload a video and share it with friends.