This article was published on September 27, 2012

FixYa releases iOS app for users to record their DIY issues in video clips to find help


FixYa releases iOS app for users to record their DIY issues in video clips to find help

FixYa, the site that brings a community together to help people mend broken items from cars to blenders, has released a mobile app with a neat video feature.

The new app provides a way to make a problem clear. If you’re not an expert, it can sometimes be tricky to find the right words to describe what’s going on. For example; “Oh no! The thing snapped off that tubey bit on my sink and now there’s water all over my kitchen!”. That’s not going to help you describe things in a way that others can understand.

Users can now record a video clip of the issue on their smart phone and upload it to the site so that others can work out what to do. On the app, choose a category, upload your clip, get an answer. FixYa’s CEO Yaniv Bensadon tells us that most people get a useful response in about an hour. That’s not bad when you consider the amount of time you might spend on hold waiting for a customer support team to help you out.

FixYa is essentially a Q&A site where people can ask a question like, “How can I fix my broken light switch?” and the community replies with their expertise on how to best handle the issue and hopefully provide a way to fix it. (…and possibly remind you to turn off the electricity first.)

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The community on the site is pretty big; 25 million users so far and 700,000 experts. To date the site has managed 15 million questions across eight million products.

So, what makes an expert? Bensadon explains, “Experts are normal users who have answered a number of questions within a specific product vertical,say refrigerators. FixYa has gamification and ‘badgification’ systems that determine when a user validates his or her knowledge by successfully answering questions and is pegged as an expert.” So if you’re helpful and accurate, you become an expert.

Fixya has been pushing its mobile offering leading up to this video release. In June when it announced 24 million monthly users, the company also rolled out HTML 5 support for access across devices.

Having a mobile video app nearby when things go wrong could be pretty handy. You’re not at home when something happens to your car most of the time and if things do go wrong where you live, you might not have time to boot up your PC.

As we rely upon mobile devices more and more to help with our daily needs, it’s not surprising that it should become a tool for DIY when we need a little advice.

The app is available for iOS and there is an Android version in the works that should arrive in the coming months.

➤ FixyaiOS

Image Credit: Les Chatfield

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