Another experimentation in mobile messaging arrives today, this time from a company innovating on the Android platform first. Yes, Android.
LokLok, as this latest app is called, replaces the Android phone’s lock screen with a “synchronized whiteboard” that allows you to leave notes and drawings directly on your friends’ lock screens. That means, unlike traditional messaging apps, you don’t have to unlock your phone and launch an app to chat with your friends. You just take out your phone and start drawing.
The idea comes out of Kwamecorp, a technology and creative consultancy and startup incubator behind a number of other projects, including FairPhone OS, Bond and Impossible.
LokLok, the company explains, began as a small experiment.
“I was curious to see if I could use the screen as the communication channel itself,” says LokLok CEOÂ Guillermo Landin, also a UX director for Kwamecorp, via email. Around six months ago, he created a prototype of the app using widgets and HTML5. He then put together a small team around the project, which has been, until today, in private beta testing on the Android app store.
Landin tells us the reviews have been fairly positive so far during this pre-launch period. But what seems to be intriguing users the most is the fact that this interesting and unique new app is something that’s not just launching on Android first, but is the kind of thing that would only be possible on Android.
Because of the way Apple restricts apps from replacing the core pieces and functions within its mobile operating system, an iPhone app today could never allow users to draw on each others’ lock screens.
That being said, Landin has some plans to address the iOS market in the future, just in a different way. He says an iOS version is already in the works, but the team doesn’t have a release date for it yet.
Because of its current inability to work cross-platform, LokLok will remain, for now, a clever toy.
You can doodle on the screen, doodle over photos, share privately with individuals or groups, or post your messages across social media. A handful of basic drawing tools are also offered, including different brushes, a color-picker and more.
Similar to a number of other messaging apps on the market, LokLok’s messages are also “ephemeral”; the app only retains the latest image from each group on the server, so when users clear their screens, the messages are gone forever.
LokLok is a free download here on Google Play.