We all know that feeling when you send a funny TikTok video expecting a reaction from your friends, only to get a basic laughing emoji or, worse, no response at all. Seen's goal is to solve this problem with a new social app that records your friends' live video reactions to the content you send them.
The video messaging app, available for iOS devices, was co-founded by seasoned entrepreneur Faheem Kajee and actress Karen Gillan, best known for her role as Nebula in “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
Seen lets you send videos in a private one-on-one iMessage or group chat with up to 11 people. Once the content is sent to the recipient, they must record their own video, which can only be viewed by friends they know along with the sender in a group chat. The sender must then reciprocate with a video of themselves reacting to their friend's reaction. The company hopes its app can provide an authentic and engaging way to interact with friends.
One of the app's key features is TikTok integration, which allows you to share videos with Seen's friends directly from the TikTok app. The app also offers a scrollable feed of popular TikTok videos as well as the ability to upload videos from your iPhone's camera roll. Integration with YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels will be introduced in the future.
It launched on the App Store earlier this month and already has thousands of users. The company said it plans to release an Android version soon, but did not give a specific release date.
“Our broad goal is to create a platform that helps people connect with each other in a very real way,” Kajee told TechCrunch. “(Sharing a video reaction) is better than just giving a thumbs up. “It sparks a broader conversation, and seeing someone’s reaction makes me feel like there will be some results.”
Kajee is the co-founder of three other startups: beverage company Moment, e-commerce platform Initial, and fashion social app Found (formerly Pashash). Meanwhile, this will be Gillan's first time founding a tech startup.
“(Gillan) was involved in both the actual conceptualization and the core process, which was surprising and unexpected for a big-name Hollywood actress. Karen was really helpful with the distribution,” Kajee said.
In addition to having movie stars as founders to help with user growth, the app has also received backing from high-profile investors, including Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, former Crunchyroll CEO Kun Gao, and Rotten founding CEO. Tomatoes Patrick Lee and others provided a total of $1 million in funding.
Reacting to private video messages is only the first iteration of Seen. The company plans to introduce a public feed in the future to discover other users, and is also considering the possibility for popular content creators to engage with fans one-on-one to get feedback before posting videos. Other possible use cases for the app could include stand-up comedians testing out new jokes or seeing the reactions of “investors when they open up their pitch deck,” Kajee said.
The company also plans to introduce monetization features such as premium services such as games and filters within the app. Advertising is another area we'd like to explore, but Seen is taking an interesting approach that aims to collect user response data.
“As you scroll through your feed, there will be content from you, content from your friends, content from advertisers,” Kajee said, adding that users will have the option to react to ads, which Seen says will allow them to react to ads. Yes. It collects “anonymized data on aspects such as emotional types, areas a person pays attention to, and level of attention.” Reactions to ads are only accessible to Seen and not to other users or advertisers.
“These data points are really valuable and no one else has access to them, so it’s really exciting,” he said.
Reactive messenger apps have been a trend among startups such as Gather, Reactr, and Samba in the past, but they have not been as successful as the founders expected. Now, a decade later, Seen's launch comes at a time of growing demand for more authentic and meaningful connections online, especially among younger generations. The founders hope the app can address the need for genuine interaction, especially at a time when so many people are being affected by the pandemic.
