If you’ve experienced the immense frustration of having the latest episode of Game of Thrones or Mad Men spoiled because someone tweeted “NED STARK IS ___” or “I can’t believe Don Draper ___” (I’m not incurring anyone’s wrath here) you’ll be happy to know that there’s a new app called Twivo in development that will let you block spoilers for your favorite show – and it was created by someone who’s bordering on too young to watch those shows.
Twivo blocks potential spoilers from hitting your Twitter stream because you type in certain keywords to look out for – for instance, if you don’t want to know what’s going down on Scandal, you can choose to eliminate references to the show for a customizable amount of time. That way, you can scroll through your Twitter feed while watching Olivia Pope kick ass on last week’s episode without getting the ending ruined.
17 year-old Jen Lamere recently won a Boston Hackathon after she entered with Twivo, and although the demo for the app isn’t ready quite yet, tech company Furious Minds already approached her to help market the new app. So even though Lamere is still in high school, it looks like she’s gearing up for a big career.
Inspiration came easily for the teenage developer. “Dance Moms and Pretty Little Liars have been spoiled countless times for me, so this program was great to write because I knew I would actually be able to use it,” Lamere tells us.
So why solve spoilers for Twitter and not Facebook? “On Twitter, I follow a lot of celebrities who live tweet shows, which are full of spoilers. Many of my friends also tweet about the shows, but don’t really post about it on Facebook, however I can see my app being expanded to Facebook and other sites as well,” she explains.
Lamere said she took a few coding classes, but most learned to code from attending hackathons. And Lamere had some wisdom to impart on fellow young coders: “Try not to get overwhelmed – it took me years to be able to do an app on my own. It’s easy to get frustrated, but if you stick with it, programming cam be very rewarding.”
Hopefully Twivo hits soon – and Twitter doesn’t try to create something in-house and block the project – we can enjoy the added benefit of side content the platform brings to TV without any of the downsides.
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