Pop is bringing reaction GIFs to the real world with its new iPhone app, launched yesterday. Think of Pop as a way to quickly create hilarious mashups of the real world with “my reaction when” GIFs.
The idea behind Pop is that you record a short video directly with the iPhone camera, then attach a GIF to it which appears only when the user holds their finger on the screen.
Once a “Pop” is recorded, the service taps into Giphy’s search engine and trending lists to help deliver top-notch memes directly into the app so you can mash them up with your own video.
Just like Instagram, Pop has a social feed so that you’re able to comment and like posts shared by friends. On top of that, you’re able to reply directly to a Pop with your own creation which quickly into conversation threads full of GIFs.
The company says that the app was built around conversation, with the intention creating a “public forum where people interact through remix.”
I created a Pop to demonstrate how the application works (make sure to click on the video). The beauty of the service is that the “Pops” themselves are not limited to just on mobile devices but can be shared directly to the web as well thanks to the service being built using HTML5.
The company behind Pop also built a similar service called Zeega while it was part of a startup accelerator called Matter in San Francisco last year. Zeega allowed users to create interactive videos for the web, mashed up from sources like Giphy, Soundcloud and Tumblr.
Pop is intuitive, fun and addictive which could lead to rapid success for the service, but the lack of support for other platforms may be an issue at first. If you love GIFs, this app is for you.
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