Pop

Video communication for everyone

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In a San Francisco Mission café on a sunny April morning I sat with Josh, the former Head of Product at Tumblr. Our friend the venerable mroth (who had once run product at Flickr) wanted us to meet with Frederick, who was founding what would later become Polaroid Swing. Josh and I had launched some innovative photo/video apps together, and were knee deep in our latest. To create something for Polaroid was an interesting enough challenge, though, so after that chat we scheduled a week with him and his co-founder Tommy — just to see what we might come up with.

Alaric Cole, Developing a New Polaroid Medium

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The End.

It’s with humility and heavy hearts to let you know that we are shutting down Pop. The app is removed from the App Store, and we’ve discontinued support for the service.

Pop launched in Spring 2015. It was great.  We shared our vision, and users the world over gave us a shot by giving us space on their crowded screens.

But we didn’t get where we wanted to go.

We had ambitious plans: daily stories, group conversations, voice-to-text, Apple Watch goodies, and more. Unfortunately, the mechanics of an mobile app company in the current startup environment is not viable for independent developers. We’d rather stop now instead of providing a subpar experience to users. 

We think communication can be so much more meaningful in the context of human relationships. Small emotive gestures of our friends’ faces -- popping up on our screens throughout the day -- became magical when they combined to tell a larger story.  

We’re still awfully excited about the future of messaging. There are lots of amazing things to come. 

But, our time has come to an end. Our team has agreed to a good opportunity to work with some awesome folks. Before we go... thank you so much -- friends, family, investors, and users across the world -- everyone who gave us the chance to make something great.

<3 - Josh

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The study found that the less time the girls spent on screens and the more time in face-to-face communication, the greater their social success, the higher their feelings of normalcy, the more sleep they got and the fewer friends they had who their parents believed were a bad influence. The more time the girls spent with screens, by contrast, the less sleep they got and the lower their self-esteem..

Hey, Kids, Look at Me When We’re Talking

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Transmigration, Yayoi Kusama, 2011

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Pop was sprouting in countless homegrown versions around the world but also that the term itself has become too narrow to encompass the revolution in thinking it represented for a generation of artists. // When the World Went Pop

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She comes in colors, Ramona Rosales

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The message is the medium - Messaging services are rapidly growing beyond online chat // The Economist

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What makes messaging special—and drives us away from social media—is that messaging apps let us talk one on one, or with a small group. They give us a direct line of communication to people we care about. We can send a note that won’t get buried among a hundred other people’s updates in a news feed or timeline.

Why No One’s Going To Win The Messaging War

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PFSK // Lo-Fi Video Postcards are Texting-Voicemail Cocktails: The app’s unique feature is its ability to send lo-fi videos in seconds, which lends itself well to creations that are focused on organizing meet ups, chatting about what you’re up to and maybe even what happened the night before.

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Why We Love It: Because not everything needs to be ephemeral.

Culture Collide's Review of Pop

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The Week's Best Android, iPhone, iPad, and Windows Phone Apps

W00 - that's us in Gizmodo's Best Apps of the Week! <proud>Yay.</proud> 

Pop - Sometimes a text message doesn't quite cut it, so why not send someone a short video message instead? It's much more emotive that way. Obviously data limits are an issue, so Pop has taken that into account and promises to go easy on the amount of data it uses. [Free]

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We're so humbled and encouraged by your response to Pop after one week of being on the App Store. With your help, we can make Pop the raddest way to see, hear and talk with the people who matter to you.

Oh, and Pop is still free to download on the App Store. :)

[joshuanguyen]

Video has been a brutal category.

Me. (We’re still coming to the throwdown with our slingshot!)

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Friday 2/20/14 3:30 pm PST

Status: We're getting reports of your SMS and passcodes not getting through. Please hang tight as we are experiencing elevated requests.

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Ready, Set, Pop!

We’re stoked to release our first version of Pop, a one tap video texting app for your superfriends. We designed Pop to make it easy to share spontaneous thoughts and moments vividly without the hassle associated with phone calls. Think Skype, minus the connectivity problems and time commitment. 

We made Pop because we missed our friends - the ones who exist in real life - not the pretend versions on social media. When was the last time you shared a laugh with a friend from back home? That's a huge difference from liking their profile photo update.

To get to the heart of conversation, Pop uses the most potent expressive tool out there - your face! Finally, we can graduate from emojis to expressing thoughts with our actual faces. Imagine that!

We've combined video with a quick messaging interaction so whenever you're thinking of a friend, you can reach out with one tap - it's like a text but much more expressive. We've also made it lo-fi to be friendly on your data wallet and at the same time, make you look extra good in any lighting situation. Yep, Pop makes you look better.

Ok, enough from us! Try it for yourself.  Pop is now free in the App Store. 

We'd love to hear what you think. You can email us at [email protected]. 

Thank you for your support.

Josh & Alaric

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Warhola

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The Upcoming ‘Modern Family’ Episode ‘Connection Lost’ Will Take Place Entirely on the Screen of a MacBook