Talk about simple video messaging - The Video Pen Pals web service and buddy Vmail Android app is by far the simplest way to message friends, family, and complete strangers I have come across.
The creators are a father and son team who have attempted to build a social networking service that's built around purely around sharing video messages. No fancy social networking integration, no complex navigation, no gobs of features to figure out. You can tell by the lack of design simplicity of the VideoPenPals.net website that it's obvious that these guys want users to focus solely on the video messaging aspect of their service. To be fair, they are in beta...
The creators are a father and son team who have attempted to build a social networking service that's built around purely around sharing video messages. No fancy social networking integration, no complex navigation, no gobs of features to figure out. You can tell by the lack of design simplicity of the VideoPenPals.net website that it's obvious that these guys want users to focus solely on the video messaging aspect of their service. To be fair, they are in beta...
Once you sign up, you can upload your "Hello World" intro video and invite friends via the web by searching via Pen Pal username or email. If the person is not using the service, you can invite them right then and there. After you've uploaded your intro video, you can continue to get your friends and family on the service, or cruise the Video Pen Pals database for users to add to "your pools" (kind of like Google + Circles) to chat with. You can chat with users individually, or make groups that numerous people can respond to your messages.
You can either upload videos using any sort of video camera, or you can download the Vmail Android app, for quick uploading of videos to your account. You can also cruise random users and respond to video messages your receive via the app.
I feel like I must mention this again - you have to look past the "simplicity" of the service/app to get where the creators are trying to go with this. Just a simple way to video message friends, family, and/or complete strangers (in hopes that they will become your Video Pen Pals...hence the name of the service).
Both the web service and Android app are free and currently in beta. So hopefully, as the user database grows and the service can get some funding and/or monetize the service to come out of beta, some design elements/user experience will get drastically better as well. On the other hand, you may appreciate the "lean" angle and simplicity of the service. So try the VideoPenPals service and Vmail Android app for yourself and let us know what you think in the comments section.
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