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Viddy launches new Android app, stakes its claim as the 'Instagram of video'

Viddy launches new Android app, stakes its claim as the 'Instagram of video'

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Viddy for Android
Viddy for Android

Viddy has seen its user growth slow on iOS, but the number of active users is sure to spike with the launch of the video-sharing app on Android. The app is still hoping to make it as the Instagram for video, and Viddy's feature set definitely reflects that. Users can apply 10 different filters to enhance their recorded videos before sharing them out to other users, and songs from the likes of Owl City, Ellie Goulding, and Snoop Dogg can added as accompanying background tracks. Once the video has been run through the grinder and encoded for the service, users will be prompted to upload the footage while being encouraged to share it out to a slew of different social networks.

Viddy is promising support for 757 Android devices

The app is promising support for an insane number of Android devices 757 smartphones and tablets in 16 countries, to be precise but Viddy somehow seems to have missed some notable phones despite that large number. Those with high-end smartphones needn't worry, as the app runs without any issues on the Samsung Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II, but it’s not available for devices like the Motorola Droid RAZR or Sony Xperia P. User patience could make or break the service, too: the time it takes to process a single image with a filter compared to a 15 second clip is vastly different. The video is also going to be larger in terms of filesize, which could quickly eat into mobile data caps for those away from Wi-Fi.

But the real elephant in the room for Viddy is YouTube. Anyone using Android can already share videos out to a huge public community right now with minimal effort thanks to Google’s integration across the OS. There aren’t any hardware compatibility issues either: whereas Viddy relies on the device to encode the final video, YouTube handles everything server side.

Still, Viddy is as much about discovery as it is about sharing, and people will no doubt find appeal in following and browsing specific friends from within the app rather than randomly browsing feeds. The app has all the features that those looking for an Instagram for video would want, so its success will really come down to whether the Android community embraces or rejects it.