Color allows live video streaming to Facebook
by Toni McQuilken
May 29, 2012 10:31 AM –
Install
Color lets you instantly capture and share LIVE video Broadcasts and photos with friends on Facebook. Family and friends can experience what’s happening LIVE.
Price: Free
Tested on: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
Content Rating: Low Maturity
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- A new way to share content with friends and family on Facebook!
- Brings an element that the default Facebook app lacks!
Cons
- I had some issues with focusing.
- You can only make 30 second long videos (some report a 5 minute cap).
- On some networks, people are reporting only video, with no audio.
Features:
Color is a really interesting Facebook app. It doesn’t care about or offer a way to post your usual status updates, manage friends, etc. You can upload photos, either new ones you take via the app or from your gallery, but even that is somewhat secondary to the broadcasting feature.
Color’s real selling point here is the ability to live broadcast whatever it is you’re seeing, and have friends join in (see it in action in Verizon’s new “DROID Does Live” TV commercial). And because it’s linked into Facebook, you can see (or get a notification) when friends are on and using the app so you can join in. If you’ve used video chat apps before, then this will feel very familiar. But what I liked was that it works through Facebook, so you already have a built in contact list. Of course, you have to convince your friends to use the app too, for this to really work, but you can also tape things and post them as videos, so even while you wait for other people to catch on, you can still “livecast” your life if you want.
One problem I had is that while you’re in video mode, you should be able to tap to focus, but I found tapping the screen didn’t do anything, and there was no other way to focus. So I ended up with a lot of blurry video. Uploading photos was very easy, and I liked how simple it made batch uploads in particular – you can caption them, select albums, etc. You can also only take up to 30 seconds of video (others were able to get up to five minutes… even still that’s short), which is great for short sharing, but if you want to use this for anything more than short clips, you’ll be a bit disappointed. Also, some users are reporting that they are only getting video, with no audio attached. It seems to work on some networks and devices and not others, so you’ll want to test this on your device.
-
-
Color Facebook Account
-
-
Color Feed
-
-
Color Timeline
-
-
Color Friends
-
-
Color Capture
-
-
Color Video Capture
-
-
Color Broadcast Start
-
-
Color Finished Recording
-
-
Color Photo
-
-
Color Uploaded Photos
-
-
Color Add Caption
-
-
Color Choose Albums
-
-
Color Settings
-
-
Color Help
Usefulness:
If you’re looking for an easy way to share video as well as still photos on Facebook, then this is going to be a very useful app for you. It makes the process easy, and allows you to manage still photos within the same app makes it very handy. For content producers, this could provide a great way to stream live video content to folks; provided the short video lengths and audio issues are resolved.
Ease of Use:
I thought it was incredibly easy to use. I like that it will give me a photo version of both my own timeline and of my friends’ feeds, and taking and sharing video was very easy.
Frequently Used:
I see this as being used the most by people who have loved ones that don’t live nearby. The ability to send a notification when you’re on and broadcasting is a great feature to help ensure you can see and talk with friends instead of just see photos. Again, there some downsides, but when it works, it’s good.
Interface:
Overall the interface is very clean and well laid out. I didn’t have any problems navigating around.
Tags:
Android App,
Android Apps,
AndroidTapp.com App Review,
Broadcasting,
Color,
Color for Facebook,
Live Broadcast,
Social Broadcasting,
Social Networking
Categorised in: Communication, Social
Submit apps for review,
promote apps, get more installs with better
app videos.