Reinventing an App — Tings v2.0
Tings version 2.0 is here! This is our biggest update yet…
Which I know I’ve said before…But!
This is more than just an update. We have changed things up entirely.
Welcome to Tings 2.0 — a place to capture moments in GIFs with voice-over. Your memories living forever, in a fun and vivid way.
Why the change? It was a response to updates in technology and modifications in marketing. On the tech side, we were looking at a way to incorporate live photos into the app. We think that live photos are only going to become more and more popular as time goes on. (While we did not add the ability to upload a live photo on this version of Tings, it will be added in the next). Meanwhile on the marketing side, we had been wanting to make some changes based on what our users desired from Tings (or any other app). We realized through scouring social media and talking to people that GIFs are popular right now, and people enjoy sharing them. Thus the idea was born to turn Tings into a live photo/GIF with voice over app. It is our way of keeping the original intent of the app (voice sharing) while also incorporating something new people are looking for (live photos/GIFs).
Below you will find some screenshots and more detailed information about the biggest changes we made for 2.0!
Friends in an Anonymous App?
Tings used to feature three feeds to view posts in, those were; Friends, Explore, and Top Tings. Friends was where you could find posts from people that are listed in your contacts (if you allow the app to view your contacts). From the get go, this feed confused people. It was the idea of an anonymous app, that includes a feed from people you know, which didn’t make sense. For example, if you had only one friend who lived in Dallas, Texas you would automatically know that the posts from Dallas in the Friends feed were from that specific person. In this way, having a friends feed took the anonymity out of it.
So, we have decided to take that feed out completely, and replace it with another feed that has content personalized to you.
Follow Tags
In place of the “Friends” feed, we wanted to put something that would be targeted specifically to the user, based on content that is defined by tags. Our inspiration started from the updates that Instagram had been making to their explore page. I noticed that the more I started to follow dancers or makeup artists on Instagram, the more dancers and makeup artists were showing up in my explore feed. I hadn’t realized that the feed was personalized until then. The next thing we noticed was that a new app Ello and popular blog side Medium specifically ask users to pick tags to follow, so that the stuff they find most interesting is all in one place. We figured going forward that the trend would be to give users the opportunity to create a feed that is personalized to their interests.
This is exactly what we had been looking to add to Tings, something really specific that users would want. In addition, within the Search page on Tings we have added “Featured” tags. These Featured tags are 10 different tags that we pick to highlight. It is our hope that the featured tags will help users get inspiration for posts, as well as connect with like-minded people. Not only have we updated the feeds and tags features on Tings, the basic look of a post got a big update in version 2.o.
Moving Pictures
Adding moving pictures (or GIFs) was absolutely the most important part of our initiative to bring users what they are looking for. The biggest social networks in the U.S. and beyond have come to embrace GIFs in all forms, and people love to share them. Because of this, we believe the future of photos online is moving pictures. Therefore from now on Tings will be moving pictures with a voice over.
Users have the option to share the Ting to social networks, and save it as a GIF or a video. Adding voice-over to the video makes the post more vivid and personal, and it is also what makes Tings a more unique app. The final change to Tings for 2.0 has to do with being anonymous and the options for voice-over effects.
New Voices
For this big update to the app, we chose to offer one’s original voice as an option when you are recording a Ting. Again, this was something that people had been asking for in the app for some time. Before this update, a user was required to use a morph to mask their voice. The reason we had not made that change yet, was because we wanted to maintain everyone’s total anonymity. However, while building version 2.0, being anonymous began to slip to the back burner in terms of highlights of the app.
Instead of being an anonymous voice app that uses GIFs, we are a GIF with voice-over app that also happens to be anonymous. With this branding realization, the apprehension we had had about allowing users to record without a morph began to subside, and so now we have made it an option. We also added in a new voice morph called “Deevee” that is inspired by Star Wars. In addition, small changes were made to the existing voice morphs and the look of their characters.
To Conclude
Tings version 2.0 is a culmination of soul-searching, reflection and consideration by the team at Beijing MIC Tech. It is a key pivot towards providing an app that more effectively meets the desires of our users. We’ve taken a big step forward, but still continue to press onward to even bigger and better things!
Tings
Tings is a fun and vivid way to bring your moments to life.
Moments don’t last long. Pictures are great to treasure these memories, but moving pictures are even better. On Tings, users record GIFs and add voice-over to tell the story, express a feeling, or dub the GIF for fun.
If you liked this article please Recommend below & download Tings from the App Store. More goodies: Website. Twitter. Facebook. Podcast.
