QIK – Mobile Video Streaming

I’ve been testing QIK over the weekend. QIK let’s you stream live video from your mobile phone. In my case I’m testing a version that is almost ready for public release on a 3G iPhone. This is an embed of my live streams although I’m not sure how public longer term I’m going to be.

QIK is simply fantastic! You might ask me why I’d be so positive! It traces to behavior more than just the app and there is great learning for Flickr in this app. I’ve had video in Nokia cameraphones for years. With one exception when I was testing an N90 some years ago I’ve not had the same sort of ‘aha’ moment and satisfaction with video. Two things made me really think differently about it on the iPhone.

First Impressions:
1. It’s a simple single button to launch and then one more press starts the recording. The iPhone is easy to hold in this format and for the most part I found it easy to hold relatively steady. In some of my examples from today I was walking around.

2. It posts them to QIK automatically. Either publicly or privately. It’s posting them in almost real time. I did see quite a buffer build up on some of the videos I was taking this am. I was supposedly connected via AT&T 3G. It will also send them to YouTube and send notifications to Twitter and other social networking services like Seesmic.

So how’s this better? Launch to publish in seconds. When it’s on everyone’s phones sharing videos will be easy. In fact video messaging could be very very simple!

Here’s what I noted about the QIK iPhone client. Note the first screen… ready to go.

Hold your finger down and you can adjust some settings. Eg give the video a title before you start recording. I’ve not worked out the “share this” on the iPhone yet. It may not be quite ready. I also had some problems with Twitter streaming alerts this AM although I think I have that sorted for future videos.

The management and general settings are easy to get to. Everything is logically laid out.

What’s lacking or perhaps not clear to me?
1. iPhone needs a better camera. Nothing to do with QIK although I’m sure QIK could integrate a digital zoom and it would be great to stop and start it via the apple bluetooth headset. Eg a pause perhaps and then back to streaming. The real downside is Apple needs a second lens for the self-portrait situation. I also wasn’t sure when I was recording this am whether it was using the speaker phone mic or my bluetooth headset as the audio source. I think is was using the speaker phone setting. QIK manages 15fps which is not bad although when I was taking pictures of runners… it lacks a little clarity.

Second thing I’m thinking about getting. One of those simple windshield clamps with the suction cups so I can QIK while driving. I’ve often wanted a simple tripod type mount for the iPhone. Does anyone know of one?

2. Groups: I quickly wanted to work out how to say share with my family or with friends. So when I got home I took a look at QIK and found I could create my own groups. So I could create a group family and then share the private video I’d taken. Similarly I found I could send a video link via an email and still keep it relatively private on QIK. Now it looks like you can do this from the iPhone client but so far I’ve not been able to make it work. That’s certainly one area I’d like  it to be more integrated. There’s a section in profile which I think should take you to the MyAccount page and I’d like to see the last video’s listed there. Clicking on them should take me to my YouTube account. It will probably come.

I’d note the groups feature is way better than the sharing controls in Flickr at least since the last time I looked. I’d also add that Flickr could learn something from QIK and “Exposure” and other iPhone clients. They should just create their own Flickr app and provide additional photography tools.

Depending on how “sharing” on QIK evolves it should be easy to use it as a video messaging service as well. (See also Phweet below). I’d also like to be able from the phone (rather than the website) to send a simple video message, that is share with an iPhone contact.  I can probably do this with a group although I’m not sure yet.

3. Notifications and Chat: I was a little confused by the notifications and chat. Dina picked up on one video that I doing live. I got a message on my screen while shooting but I still have no idea how I could have typed an answer at the time and held the iPhone steady. So I said that and responded by talking during the live the video.

4. Length of Video: I’m not sure yet what the average length of video on QIK is. Fairly short I’d think. So the live chat function tends to confuse me in that regard. There’s huge latency in Twitter updates depending on how you receive your notifications. So if a Qikker is streaming (I see Pat Phelan, Scoble, Beth Kanter and others) doing this most often then then you may not be able to physically get to QIK, log-in and start chatting before they stop the video. It has happened to me a few times and thus it seems I never get a response. (I’d have to test more in this area to be certain about chat responses. Hope to find someone this week to try it with.). The result I no longer follow QIK links.

5. Neat Things: QIK does a great job with some little things. Eg an add to iTunes link. In fact it is fairly well integrated. I decided to go back and open my Seesmic account. Seems with QIK I can send my video straight there too. Not sure I need to. However, the mobile rather than the laptop is definitely going to be the longterm video entry/update point.

6. Phweet URL:
Every QIK video could also be a PhweetURL. QIK video links persist just like Phweet’s persistent URLs. (They are now called Twitter Talk Topics when you log in to Phweet). So what am I thinking here?

a. When using QIK on the iPhone over WiFI the link could instantly enable others to dial in to the Phweet bridge and talk to the video operator. (Note I’m not suggesting that their voice streams be synced into the video feed.) This one… real time Phone and Video conversations really gets to the talking live about what you are looking at. In some countries we already have video calls on mobile. The difference is this is not a conference enabled capability it is one to one. So in this example two or more people can talk to the live Qikker.

b. The video is short and now it is finished. Rather than putting in a chat why not just call the Qikker. With the Twitter integration Phweet could simply power each QIK with a persistent URL for a period before expiring. Thus anyone viewing could click on the link and the Qikker would get a Twitter Direct notification from Phweet on the URL, the title and description. Now the video becomes a potential talking point as well. This would create new opportunities and potentially enable conversations to emerge around the content.

c. For me this example of bringing QIK video together without breaches of privacy or any need to exchange phone numbers or even unwanted interruptions makes for something that is more natural and for some perhaps even more entertaining. For if I am already broadcasting live there is a good chance I’d be willing to talk too and certainly in some content situations.

d. I’d hypothesize that talk may create better community around the groups. Certainly when someone is live and you get a notification then you are more likely to tune in if you have talked to someone in the past.  I’d note that Phweet also uses Twitter to send SMS notifications (at least in US/Canada/India) when a conversation like this becomes active.

e. How difficult is this? Phweet has an API. Rather than sending the notification to Twitter you would activate and post to Twitter via Phweet. Anyone on QIK could pop a Phweet Talk session around the video. Talk to us! In short order you could be talking either while you are Qikking or just after. I certainly would like to understand the sound / streaming constraints when both WiFi and AT&T are available. If not… taking videos and then being able to take calls about them could be fun.

Wrap-Up:

It is headed towards being a must-have app on the iPhone. While I believe there is a “broad” public aspect to sharing and shooting video I also believe there is a more private aspect too. I’m not sure yet how well I can shoot and share a video with one or two people (particularly if they are not Qik members/users) rather than the whole world. I personally would be a lot more comfortable doing that. Better account management within the app would probably make this easy.

I remain impressed by the mobile social implications. This is not about just uploading videos or taking them using a laptop cam. It’s mobile video anywhere as easily as the camera-phone. In fact easier than most solutions with the automatic upload. I’d love to have a few more accounts to test it with my daughters friends.  How does one get Qik’s into Facebook?

Qik just announced a version for Blackberry. So now many Nokia’s, iPhone (almost) and Blackberry. I’m sure the dev team has their hands full.

Lastly, there’s that question that everyone asks…. What’s the business model? I declare I don’t know. It makes it interesting in these times.

Tagged as: iphone, phweet, Qik, twitter