Another messaging App – Yahoo joins the mix with LiveText

Hands up if you’ve heard of Whatsapp? Facebook Messenger? iMessage? Line? Wechat? Telegram? Skype chat?

Ok hands down. Get ready for another one. Yahoo is a bit late to the game to say the least. It’s been out in Asia for a month or two now but has been released now to the entire world and Live Text is available from Yahoo and it’s a bit strange if we are honest.

We’ve been testing it over the last couple of days and it really does take some getting used to as there is no sound. Video without sound just seems so weird. As always with these things I (Barry) tested it with Beat The Cyberbully founder in the UK & Ireland Wayne Denner and he was in IKEA at the time. By all accounts it is quite entertaining for anyone around you, as you are involved in a video chat, but with no sound. But I guess in this day of multi tasking and people having full on conversations on their mobile devices on speaker phone in public areas, this might not be quite so invasive, which gets a big thumbs up.

The app itself works pretty well in terms of user friendliness – setup is painless and just needs your phone number and access to contacts and photos – you can find friends then either by their LiveText ID or from your address book and invite them. Once connected, you hit their name and away you go. Your camera turns on and you can type away. As with most comms apps these days, it’s ephemeral and as soon as you shut down the app, your conversations are gone too. Yahoo’s project manager Arjun Seti states ” we want to create an emotional connection” and “We want to make sure you can get into a conversation as quickly as possible.” And I would have to agree that they’ve done that.

Am I 100% sold on the idea, not really. It adds a different dimension and I have no doubt that many will love it – someone here loves it!! But with the late entry to the market and the really really creepy nature of it being silent. It will be one I am aware of but probably won’t use in anger.

If you’d like to check it out, you can download from the iTunes store and Google play – but be wary. Yes it’s ephemeral and in theory your chats will be deleted, but as per the image above, you can take screenshots so Stop | Think | LiveText – remember you lost control as soon as you hit send.