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Uptime, an app that makes your YouTube videos interactive, is now available to the public

Uptime, an app that makes your YouTube videos interactive, is now available to the public

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Uptime

Uptime, an app developed under Google’s Area 120 incubator, is now available to the public. The iOS app debuted in early March as invite-only. Uptime basically takes existing YouTube videos and makes them more interactive by letting you watch them with your friends. You can see where — time-wise — your friends are in a video as compared to you. You’ll also see reactions in the form of sparkles or different cartoon faces. It looks a lot like Facebook Live reactions or Anchor claps. So far, the app isn’t available on Android.

I just downloaded Uptime, and it seems there aren’t many active users, which makes sense, I guess. None of my friends are on it, and I couldn’t find any videos that have active engagement happening. Maybe over the next few months it’ll grow, but Google still isn’t branding the app under its own name or including it within the YouTube app. Until that happens, it’ll probably stay niche.