Victoria Codispoti | @vlcodispoti

What is blab and should you be scared?

Blab is another livestreaming platform that enabled public video chatting between four participants at a time. Should you be scared? No! If you’re familiar with Periscope, Google Hangouts and Meerkat then you’re in the clear. Blab is basically a combination of all three.

With Blab, you can have up to four video chatters at a time and unlimited viewers. While the video chatters are discussing their topic viewers can “give props” with a hands up icon to silently show the chatters that you agree with their statements. Blab promotes equality. Once the video chat is over, users can still access the content, but the props disappear and everyone is back to square one. Users still have a profile where other users can follow them, but removing the props after a video chat takes away the concern of providing content for hearts and likes and puts everyone on the same field.

At anytime if one of the four video chatters leaves, another user who’s viewing can then jump right into the live stream conversation. This keeps things moving and interesting by providing the ability to get and give different opinions and points of view.

It was launched in April, but still in beta. You can test it out on the desktop by blab.im or follow the link blab.im/ios and download the test mobile application. An app has been submitted to Apple and once accepted you’ll be able to download it from the Apple Store, with Androids following shortly thereafter.

While the video chat is going on, viewers have the ability to chat with each other by typing and posting questions. When a question is posted, it’s highlighted for the video chatters to address during their conversation. This platform is very similar to attending an online seminar and participating in a tweet chat around a common hashtag, but puts all the conversations in one place.

Here you can see the company discuss why they chose to open the application to users and fix the kinks by listening to the users rather than just working in house and launching it immediately.

Striving to bring social interaction back, blab has created a medium for people to interact with one another. Instead of interactions that include ‘thanks for the retweet,’ people are able to have meaningful conversations in the moment about pressing issues. Relationships are being built everyday on blab, what are you waiting for?