We all know the feeling of sending a funny TikTok video, hoping for a reaction from your friends only to get a laughing emoji in return, or worse, no reaction at all. Seen is looking to solve this problem with its new social app, which lets your friends record live videos of their reactions to the content you send them.
The video messaging app, available for iOS devices, was co-founded by veteran entrepreneur Faheem Qazi and actress Karen Gillan, best known for her role as Nebula in “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
Seen lets you send videos in private one-on-one iMessages or group chats with up to 11 people. The recipient must record a video of themselves once the content has been sent, which can only be viewed by the sender and mutual friends in the group chat. The sender must reply with a video of themselves reacting to their friend's response. The company hopes the app will create an authentic and engaging way to interact with friends.
One of the app's key features is its integration with TikTok, allowing users to share videos with friends on Seen directly from the TikTok app. The app also offers a scrollable feed of popular TikTok videos and the ability to upload videos from your iPhone's camera roll. In the future, the app will also introduce integration with YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels.
Seen was released on the App Store earlier this month and already has thousands of users, and the company says it plans to release an Android version soon, but hasn't given a specific release date.
“Our big goal is to create a platform where people can connect with each other in a way that feels very real,” Kazee told TechCrunch.[Sharing video reactions] “It's better than just getting a thumbs up. It opens up a wider conversation and seeing the other person's reaction makes it feel like you've made an impact.”
Image credit: Seen
Kazee is also the co-founder of three startups: beverage company Moment, e-commerce platform Initial and fashion social app Found (formerly Pashash), while this is Gillan's first tech startup.
“[Gillan] “She was involved in both the actual concept and the granular process, which was surprising and unexpected for a Hollywood A-list actress…. Karen has also been really supportive on the distribution side,” Kazee said.
The app has brought in movie star founders to help grow its user base and is backed by notable investors including Twitter co-founder Eve Williams, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, former Crunchyroll CEO Kun Gao and Rotten Tomatoes founding CEO Patrick Lee, bringing the total funding to $1 million.
The ability to react to private video messages is just Seen's first iteration. The company plans to introduce a public feed for discovering other users and is also exploring the possibility of popular content creators interacting one-on-one with fans to get reactions before posting a video. Other use cases for the app could include stand-up comedians trying out new jokes or seeing reactions “when investors open their pitch decks,” Kajee said.
The company also plans to introduce monetization features within the app, such as games, filters, and other premium features. Advertising is also an area the company would like to explore, but Seen has taken an interesting approach aimed at collecting user response data.
“As you scroll through your feed, you'll see content from you, content from your friends and content from advertisers,” Kazee noted, adding that users have the option to respond to ads and Seen collects “anonymous data on aspects such as the type of emotion, areas of individual focus and level of attention.” Responses to ads will only be accessible to Seen, not other users or advertisers.
“These data points are incredibly valuable and are something that no one else has access to, so they're very interesting,” he said.
Reaction messenger apps have been popular among startups in the past, including Gather, Reactr, and Samba, but none of them seem to have caught on as well as their founders hoped. Now, a decade later, Seen's release comes at a time of growing demand for more authentic and meaningful connections online, especially among younger generations. The founders hope the app will address a need for authentic interaction, especially at a time when many are feeling the effects of the loneliness epidemic.