Yahoo launches Livetext messaging app for iOS

Yahoo Livetext – Video Messenger, the app that went live earlier this month introduces a unique form of video texting that combines traditional text messages with video that does not include an audio feed. While it is a bit unusual, the idea here is to allow users to see each other in real-time as they text each other. This means, from voice calls to text messages to video calls, we have now travelled to video without sound with text slapped across the moving frames.

Livetext is completely free to use, and the app works over your device’s Wi-Fi or cellular connection.

The upcoming version of Yahoo’s Messenger app has been released and is being described as a video chat facility which guarantees you will feel like your friends are there with you. But somewhere along the way we lost the natural flow of conversation.

So, if you’re planning on using Livetext when or if it releases worldwide, make sure to manage those emoticons well to match your actual reaction, because eyes will be on you. Yahoo reportedly removed audio from the equation, claiming “it’s rarely convenient in today’s fast-paced world”. With live texting and silent glimpses, Livetext is planning on being the more natural and fitting way of communicating with your friends. Sessions can last as long as needed.

With the help of the LiveText ID, users can check in with their newly created profiles and also find friends available using the same application within their address book. Yahoo teased media July 17 with little comment. “We have nothing further to share at this time”, a Yahoo spokesperson was quoted as saying by TechCrunch. It’s common knowledge within industry circles that Yahoo has been working on an upgrade to its mobile messaging application for several years.

Is this the app that’s supposed to replace Yahoo Messenger, however? All the major social networks rely heavily on messaging to provide services, of course, and other IT providers, such as Microsoft (with Yammer), Cisco Systems, Intel, RingCentral, Verizon, AT&T, VMware, and dozens more have added the functionality for customers.