The new version of Six3 has been receiving plenty of attention from the likes of Reuters, Huffington Post, Complex Mag & last but not least the Financial Times’ Technopolis section…
Send free video messages with Six3 for iPhone, PC & Mac. Video messages are the best way to stay in touch with friends & family.
Last week we released a brand new version of Six3. This iteration takes us from being a private video messaging service to a truly next generation social video service – allowing people to communicate with video privately or publicly, to their existing networks of friends, all made super easy. What changed?
- Public sharing to Facebook & Twitter is easier & more prominent.
- Users now can send private Six3s to any Facebook friend.
- Messages shared to Facebook now play right from the Timeline
- The app is now faster & more reliable.
Send a message
1. Choose to create a public or private message. 2. Pick filter, hit record, hit stop. 3. Add recipients: Facebook contact, email address or Six3 contact. Hit Send. 4. Message sends over wifi or 3/4G.
Receive a private message on Six3
1. Homescreen notification for new message. 2. Swipe notification to view message. 3. Then hit reply, which launches camera.
Receive a private message via Facebook
1. Facebook notification for new message. 2. Play message. 3. Hit reply, which launches camera.
Receive a public message via Facebook
1. Six3 post appears in Facebook (or Twitter) timeline. 2. Play message. 3. Like or comment.
Following the Video Natives post last week, we wanted to illustrate how they’re using Six3. What better way than a video?
Six3: A day in the life from Six3 on Vimeo.
In 2001, Marc Prensky coined the term “Digital Native”. A digital native is a person who, since early childhood, has been surrounded by Internet devices & services. As a result they internalise them – they use them instinctively and without the hesitations of their “Digital Immigrant” parents.
We’ve spent the last six months observing and measuring how people use Six3 and we’ve seen first-hand the rise of the Video Native. They’re 25 years-old or younger, and they grew up owning a video recording device (iPod touch, laptops, etc), experimenting with a slew of online video communication services. Video Natives have a completely different understanding of video from people who didn’t share that experience:
1. They’re very comfortable on video. They know how best to address the camera, what looks good, what doesn’t.
2. They use video as easily as text or photos. One of our investors asked his 9 year-old daughter whether her room was tidy. She responded by grabbing his iPhone, and returning a minute later with a narrated video of her clean room. This didn’t happen when I was 9 in 1985, and it wasn’t happening in 2005 (Youtube had only just arrived that year).
3. They shoot & share video. According to the respected Pew Research Center 27% of 12-17 year olds record and share video to the Internet.
4. They use video to communicate. The same Pew research found that 37% of US 12-17 year olds now uses online video chat – an extraordinary figure. Communication is seeing another revolution, on a par with SMS & email .
So, an entire generation of kids is growing up with video communication as a core part of their lives. We already know that young consumers are rabid users of asynchronous messaging services (BBM, Whatsapp, etc).The opportunity for asynchronous video communication is huge.
For Six3 the future is clear, we need to create a more radical vision for video messaging that addresses the Video Native opportunity. It needs to be fast, to reach them through their social networks and give them the flexibility to communicate with indviduals, groups or the world. Big changes are coming to Six3 in October. Stay tuned.
At a spectacular venue overlooking the London 2012 Olympic Village last night, Six3 was honoured to receive third prize at the Cisco British Innovation Gateaway Awards. Aside from the cash value of the prize ($10,000), it was great validation to have Cisco, a heavyweight in the world of video communication & collaboration, declare their support for our product & business.
Companies the size of Cisco often struggle to recognise and collaborate with smaller, fast-moving businesses. While the BIG Awards is the outward face of their efforts, Cisco walks the talk – we’re already meeting with Cisco teams to explore how Six3′s intuitive approach to video messaging could enhance their business collaboration services.
Many thanks & congratulations to Cisco and their partners JP Morgan Chase, Bird & Bird, DNX & Octopus Communications for a great event & program. Also thanks to our CTO Simon who volunteered (ahem) to take home the giant cheque for $10,000 on the Tube.
Today Six3 was announced as one Mobile Entertainment magazine’s Top 50 Mobile Innovators of 2012! It’s fantastic to be recognised by one of the industry’s leading publications for all the hard work that’s gone into Six3 over the last 12 months. We’re also incredibly flattered to be listed alongside Songkick, Hailo and other companies we admire – check the full list here.
Thanks also to sponsor Twilio – looking forward to some beers at the winner’s event on September 10th! What a great way to end the week…
UK telecoms regulator Ofcom revealed new data about our communication habits last week. The number of phone calls in the UK dropped by 5% between 2010 and 2011. More significantly the number of mobile phone calls dropped for the first time ever. Think about that, its a big change, if the trend continues, we’ll be making 25% less calls in 5 years.
What? Because we’re all busy communicating using SMS, social networks and other messaging services. These alternatives have one thing in common – they’re asynchronous. You create messages when you want, you consume them when it’s convenient and you reply when you have a moment.
Why do people prefer asynchronous methods? Maybe its about control. People don’t want calls interrupting family meals or important meetings. Time poverty is also a factor, its quicker to send a concise message then get caught on a 20-minute call (at this people people usually say, “yes, my Mum does that”).
We often get challenged by people who ask us whether video calling isn’t a stronger proposition than video messaging. The answer is “yes”, in an ideal world, where we have infinite time and our mothers are brief, that would be great. But in the real world, asynchronous video messaging wins.
Earlier in the year, Six3 ran a competition to win a pair of iPhones and our lucky winner is Dean Dodds of Brighton, UK! We asked Dean a few questions about his experiences with Six3, and here’s what he told us.
Who do you use Six3 with? My parents live in Zimbabwe, and its a great way of staying in touch with them. Likewise, my brother is now living in Kathmandu.
What’s the appeal? Its a much more personal version of email, you can see the person who’s sending it. It’s also really easy to use, you open the app, hit record and you’re away. Easier than email really.
Give us an example of when you’ve used Six3? I’m getting married soon, and making lots of preparations, but my parents are in Zimbabwe. I wanted to show my Dad the suit I’ll be walking up the aisle in, so I recorded a video message and sent it over.
How can we make Six3 better? Right now, it’s really simple, So I wouldn’t change much. If anything, my contact list is too short, I need more people to use it with!
Often we get asked “why would someone send a video message when they could just video call using Skype or Tango or Facetime?”.
The answer is simple, people are communicating less and less using “synchronous” communication, and more and more using “asynchronous” tools like email, SMS, Voxer and other tools. Interesting stat: in just five years the average phone call has halved in length. More factoids here.
“…according to the CTIA, the trade group representing the US wireless industry, the average length of our mobile phone calls has dropped drastically in the last six years. In 2006 the average call was 3.03 minutes long. By the end of 2011 they were down to 1.78 minutes”
Six3 is attending WAYRA Week UK! WAYRA is a programme set up by mobile company Telefonica to identify and invest in early stage technology companies. Aside from the investment, we’re also pretty interested in Telefonica’s 300m+ customers spread out over Europe and Latin America.
We’re really happy to be share a great new update for Six3 for iPhone. Since our launch on February 7th we’ve been analysing stats and talking to our users to find out what they liked and didn’t like about Six3. So over the past 8 weeks, we’ve been working on some major changes to how Six3 works.
The new version has several significant tweaks to make it easier, faster and more enjoyable. Here are the highlights…
We’re big fans of street style & design blog SlamXHype, and it looks like the feeling is mutual!
“Six3 is a new video message service with a clear goal in mind; to make creating, viewing and replying to video messages as easy as SMS. Frustrated with current video communication services and their flaws, Six3 decided to design the easiest way possible to privately create, send, view and reply to video messages – for free. Primarily aimed at families, business travelers and young people travelling the world and looking for interesting ways to keep in touch with friends and family, the service aims to provide a simple method of video communication. For now, the service works on iPhones, Macs & PCs, but eventually, Six3 will work on all smartphones, internet-connected TVs and games consoles. And in case you’re wondering, videos can be up to sixty three seconds long – hence the name. Six3 can be found at the iTunes App Store.”
Interesting post from Stuart Dredge at The Guardian about Six3. We talked in December, so our thinking has already moved on a little, but there were some interesting questions.
Influential US tech blog TheNextWeb wrote an interesting piece on Six3, including some interesting snippets from founders Leigh & Tim.
