INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Panda has built the next silly social feature Snapchat and Instagram will want to steal
Today the startup launches its video messaging app that fills the screen with augmented reality effects based on the words you speak
Instead of being distracted by having to pick effects out of a menu, they appear in real-time as you chat.Panda is surprising and delightful
Building a video chat app user base from scratch amidst all the competition will be a struggle
natural behavior.It all started with a trippy vision
When Alaska Airlines bought Virgin, Singer scored a free flight and came to see his buddy Arjun Sethi, an investor at Social Capital in SF
Sethi dug the idea and agreed to fund a project to build it.Panda founder Daniel SingerMeanwhile, Singer had spent the last 6 years
FaceTiming almost every day
So his small team settled for letting users send 10-second-max asynchronous video messages
that covers your mouth when you swear
always posting the results
The speech recognition effects will make a lot more sense if Panda can eventually succeed at solving the live video chat tech challenge
One day Singer imagines Panda making money by selling cosmetic effects that make you more attractive or fashionable, or offering sponsored
And it could be tough convincing buddies to download another messaging app, let alone turn it into a regular habit
Apple is also adding a slew of Memoji personalized avatars and other effects to FaceTime in its upcoming iOS 12.Panda does advance one of
just a single filter in Snapchat and Instagram Stories
Startups like Panda are effectively becoming outsourced RD departments.Still, Panda pledges to forge on (though it might be wise to take a
