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.
Say Want to get pizza and a 3D pizza slice hovers by your mouth.
Say I wear my sunglasses at night and suddenly youre wearing AR shades with a moon hung above your head.
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.
Its also a bit janky, created by a five person team with under $1 million in funding.
Building a video chat app user base from scratch amidst all the competition will be a struggle.
But even if Panda isnt the app to popularize the idea, its invented a smart way to enhance visual communication that blends into our natural behavior.It all started with a trippy vision.
Pandas 18-year-old founder Daniel Singer had built a few failed apps and was working as a product manager at peer-to-peer therapy startup Sensay in LA.
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.
Thats when suddenly Im hallucinating that as Im talking the things Im saying should appear he tells me.
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.
He loved telling stories with his closest friends, yet Apples video chat protocol had fallen behind Snapchat and Instagram when it came to creative tools.
So a year ago he raised $850,000 from Social Capital and Shrug Capital plus angels like Cyan (Banister) and Secrets David Byttow.
Singerset out to build Panda to combine FaceTimes live chat with Snapchats visual flare triggered by voice.But it turns out, video chat is hard he admits.
So his small team settled for letting users send 10-second-max asynchronous video messages.
Pandas iOS app launched today with about 200 different voice activated stickers from footballs to sleepy Zzzzzs to a %!# censorship bar that covers your mouth when you swear.
Tap them and they disappear, and soon youll be able to reposition them.
As you trigger the effects for the first time, they go into a trophy case that gamifiesvoice experimentation.Panda is fun to play around with yourself even if you arent actively messaging friends, which is reminiscent of how teens play with Snapchat face filters without 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 effects so when you say gym, the headband that appears on you is Nike branded.Unfortunately, the app can be a bit buggy and effects dont always trigger, fooling you that you arent saying the right words.
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 technologys fundamental pursuits: taking the fuzzy ideas in your head and translating them into meaning for others in clearer ways than just words can offer.
Its the next wave of visual communication that doesnt require you to break from the conversation.When I ask why other apps couldnt just copy the speech stickers, Singer insisted This has to be voice native.
I firmly disagree, and can easily imagine his whole app becoming just a single filter in Snapchat and Instagram Stories.
He eventually acquiesced thatIts a new reality that bits and pieces of consumer technology get traded around.I wouldnt be surprised if others think its a good idea.Its an uphill battle trying to disrupt todays social giants, who are quick to seize on any idea that gives them an edge.
Facebook rationalizes stealing other apps features by prioritizing whatever will engage its billions of users over the pride of its designers.
Startups like Panda are effectively becoming outsourced RD departments.Still, Panda pledges to forge on (though it might be wise to take a buyout offer).
Singer gets that his app wont cure cancer or make the world a better place as HBOs Silicon Valley has lampooned.
Were going to make really fun stuff and make them laugh and smile and experience human emotion he concludes.
At the end of the day, I dont think theres anything wrong with building entertainment and delight.