Remember when all anyone could ever talk about was becoming the next “Instagram for video”? Over the past 18 months, we’ve seen the mobile video app landscape go through a huge boom and bust cycle, as the market for startups seeking to allow users to quickly shoot and share videos with friends and strangers heated up and then very quickly cooled down. Now, the mobile video app landscape looks quite desolate compared to a year or even just six months ago.
One survivor is Klip, which is coming out with a new app update today designed to increase engagement for its users by providing better communication tools. The latest version of the Klip app adds two highly requested features: video replies and messaging between users.
The video replies feature is designed first and foremost to increase conversation between its users. When you are on a video page, there’s now an icon that lets you record your own video response. Those responses appear prominently below the video, so that other visitors can see what you’ve recorded.
That’s one way of very publicly responding to videos. Now for a more private way: Users can also now message each other in-app. Klip has an asymmetrical following approach, like Twitter, so that users don’t have to pair up as “friends” to follow each other’s videos. However, a user does have to be following you in order for you to send a private message.
In addition, the app now makes it easier than ever for users to express themselves through emoticons and icons. It has a Path-like list of emoticons on a video page that can be used to show approval, or laughter, or unhappiness, or lurve. Users can also leave comments in the same way.
Klip might not have grown as quickly or gotten as much press as the competition, but it has a solid app that just keeps getting solid-er. Klip has raised a total of $10 million since being founded, from investors that include Benchmark Capital, Matrix Partners, and founder Alain Rossmann.