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Beme — pronounced beam — is a brand new video sharing app co-created by famous YouTube celebrity Casey Neistat and his friend Matt Hackett. Beme uses the proximity sensor of your phone to record 10-second videos; at the end of the recording it will then instantly upload the video to Beme, making it impossible for you to edit the video in anyway. Does that sound complicated? Don't worry, it's not and we will explain how it works in more detail a little later.
- The founder of Beme
- Changing the social media landscape
- How Beme works
- How Beme reactions work
- Total bust or total success?
The founder of Beme
To really understand what Beme is trying to accomplish, it's important to take a look at the mastermind behind it.
Beme's founder, Casey Neistat, is a YouTube star. With almost 3 million subscribers, Casey's videos often get millions of views within a week of uploading. He is no stranger to the viral video scene, in fact, you may remember when this video was making its way around the internet.
On top of videos like this, Casey also vlogs almost every day and even in his 10-minute videos you can tell a ton of time goes into producing and editing them to be as perfect as they can be. Which begs the question, why release an app that doesn't let you edit what you post at all?
Changing the social media landscape
In an interview Casey did last summer when Beme was still in beta, he expressed his frustration with the way people spend so much time carefully creating moments of their life to share with the world. He stated that even his own 10-minute vlogs can take upwards of three hours to put together. Casey came to the realization that there were no good apps for sharing unfiltered and unedited versions of your life. Thus, Beme was born, with the hopes of changing the social media landscape to become more genuine.
Beme is now out of beta and available to the whole world. Last week, Casey released a vlog about the journey of Beme so far. Take a look!
How Beme works
As mentioned before, Beme works using your iPhone's proximity sensor, which is the small dot above the earpiece on the front of the phone.
When you are in the app, all you have to do is cover that sensor and the recording starts. As soon as you uncover the sensor – or you reach the time limit – the recording stops and automatically uploads to Beme with no way for you to see the video before posting.
The idea of Beme is to film unedited, raw footage from your perspective, so you're supposed to cover your proximity sensor with your body by putting your phone against your chest. However, you can hold the phone in front of you and put your finger over the sensor to initiate a recording. But in true Beme fashion you will notice the screen is completely black so you are unable to see what you are filming. Why? Because that's the point!
The time limit for a video on Beme is only 10 seconds; however, if you post multiple times, in relatively quick succession (even a couple minutes between works just fine) the videos will all be put together into one video.
How Beme reactions work
The way you react to posts on Beme embraces the philosophy of keeping things genuine. When you click on a video that someone has uploaded to Beme, you will be taken to a screen to watch the video (see above picture), and you will see yourself in the top right corner. By tapping on the Send Reaction button, Beme will take a photo of you reacting to the video and instantly send it to the poster.
The really cool thing is that you can take as many reaction photos as you want and Beme will put them together into a GIF for the person you are sending them to to enjoy.
Total bust or total success?
It's obviously too early to tell if Beme is really going to take off. Skeptics have been quick to point out that today's social media landscape is full of giants just waiting to squish the little guy. Heck, Beme's co-founder, Matt Hackett, even wrote a blog post about how insane it is to take on a project like this.
What is clear about Beme is that it has a vision of creating a more genuine and unfiltered social media platform that gives you an opportunity to see someone's life through their perspective. After all, don't you want to be me?
What do you think?
Have you downloaded Beme already? Do you think it could be the next big social media platform? Let us know in the comments section below!
