Yahoo launches Livetext, a slient video app

The app is already available in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and will arrive in the US, Canada, UK, France and Germany on Thursday for smartphones running on iOS or Android operating systems. The tech giant hopes it will prove a worthy rival to WhatsApp, Snapchat and others.

So if you’re in study hall or in the quiet vehicle of a commuter train, you can still have a video chat with friends-or just stare into their eyes.

Going against the current trend of cramming every possible feature into a new product, Yahoo has announced a new live video streaming and text messaging app that does not have audio.

Yahoo is taking another stab at messaging with a new mobile messenger app called Livetext.

There’s texting, good old-fashioned phone calls, voice messages, email, Slack, GChat, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and a slew of other ways to get ahold of people from your smartphone.

Like other popular messaging applications, the app is ephemeral meaning conversations and video are deleted as soon as a session closes.

Arjun Sethi came to Yahoo from the mobile messaging app MessageMe, bought by Yahoo past year.

This is Yahoo’s latest mobile service.

However, the unique selling point appears to be the ability to exchange real-time text messages overlaying the video feed, which you can see in the clip below. Yahoo claim Livetext has ditched audio to improve the privacy of video calling.

Yahoo says, users often misunderstand texts so take hours to respond, while telephone conversations require a relatively quiet environment. In the demo, they shared video footage of each other and of their surroundings.

Earlier this month, the company introduced Yahoo Sports Daily Fantasy, a betting service available on mobile devices that signalled Yahoo’s entrance into the US$2.6 billion online sports gambling business.

Mr. Cahan said one of the biggest obstacles people face in using video chat services is the sound because it makes conversations more public than the parties involved may want them to be.