Imagine making a video call without other people being able to listen in.
Yahoo Inc is trying to make that happen with Livetext, a new app that seeks to make video calling as private as texting.
Yahoo says video calls can be better than texts for expressing emotions, but their audio component makes private conversations public. With Livetext, you message friends by typing, just like texting, but you see video of friends without the audio.
Photo: AFP
It is the latest example of Yahoo trying to catch up in mobile services since Marissa Mayer became the company’s chief executive three years ago.
Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Skype and other services already deliver video calls. Yahoo’s twist is silencing audio.
It is not clear how much traction the app will get. Friends will also need to be using Livetext and, for now, the pool of users is much smaller than those with established rivals.
Yahoo says it did not want to tap its existing network of millions of users, in order to keep the experience intimate.
To use Livetext, users create a separate ID and make friend requests using their phone’s address book.
Following tests in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Ireland, as well as some US college campuses, the app was released on Thursday in the US, Canada, Germany, France and the UK.
Versions for Apple and Android devices will be available.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
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