Casey Neistat, a youtuber famous for his unique style of videos, launched a new social network named Beme (pronounced ‘beam’). It’s a network where users communicate with, Snapchat-like, self-destructing videos recorded by placing their phones on their hearts, or anywhere really, as long as you are covering the proximity sensor on your phone. While covering the proximity sensor the app records a 4 second clip and instantly uploads it online, ready to be seen by your followers.
Here’s what’s so distinctive about this application and a feature that differentiates it from other social networks like Instagram and Snapchat, there’s no preview. Yes, that’s right. Once you record your video it’s instantly uploaded, there is no editing or re-taking the video. This is done so you share the moment and you don’t create a version of yourself for the Internet, as Casey says by himself.
After the video is sent out, your followers click and hold on a video to watch it, and once it’s been seen it’s gone forever. However, they can give feedback by moving a finger than tapping the screen to send a selfie from their front-facing camera. When the video’s sender receives the reaction, it is linked to a specific moment, so you know what the follower reacted to. ‘Getting reactions is my favorite part of the app’, says Neistat. ‘There’s just something so satisfying about being able to see people actually watching what you share’.
You can download the app from iTunes but you will need code to use it. Neistat says, on his YouTube introduction to Beme, that he will give out codes periodically on his YouTube channel where he does daily vlogs.
The idea definitely sounds interesting, but will the network succeed? Being that Casey has a big following on YouTube, it’s highly likely that it will. I guess we should wait and see.