This Social Media Platform Wants You to Live in the Real World

The founders of Octi know that we spend too much time cooped up indoors. It’s certainly true. We spend a good portion of our lives at work, usually in office environments, and working on the bicycle for the mind, the computer.

Soon, with Neuralink, technology may be even integrated into the mind.

What a time.

Anyway, the computer,  gaming devices like the Playstation, Xbox, and others make you focus on the screen as opposed to what is happening around you.

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and others are screen focused and may allow for IRL meetups at some point. But there are those who want to fight back against this trend.

The founders of Octi wants to change the on device trend for the better by making reality more entertaining.

Let’s find out more about Octi.

Octi Makes The Focus on Close Friends

The idea is to focus on bringing friends to hang out with each other in real life without losing the device altogether. The application turns to facial recognition technology to bring about ways to recognize your friends and have in person and on device interactions. It’s like google glass but with your phone and just for you and your close friends.

Facial recognition is a technology that can go both ways.

It’s a pretty scary word for those who optimize for privacy.

For example, how accurate is the device at identifying people? Can it identify strangers?

The app works as such, simply point your device at your acquaintance and learn all about them in the current context. You can see their tweets, their profile, their current music and video streaming habits.

Octi seems like it would be a competitor to Snapchat, as the latter social media startup seemingly has large augmented reality ambitions. Anyone remember spectacles or Snapchat’s ever-popular filters?

Does it have potential?

I’d like to see how popular Octi becomes over time. Almost necessitating interaction in person may be a noble aim but can cause friction to the user experience. It can also cause friction in creating virality. As the user, you think about using Octi in person. But you’re still using Snapchat, Instagram, and maybe even Facebook to keep with your circle. Tiktok and other platforms spread because of its simplicity.

The firm pushing Octi has raised more than $4 million to bring about this in person vision.

It seems as if the founders of Octi will emphasize interaction with people but allow for further exploration with general surroundings after sometime.

Remember the value here is the augmented technology component and that’s a game that large players like Apple and Microsoft are starting to enter and invest further.

If you’re interested in Octi, it’s available on Apple devices today.