Got FOMO? This app will either be your saving grace or the bane of your existence. Meet Wheel Video, a new kind of social network that makes use of mobile video to bring collaborative stories to the world. Taking a page out of Snapchat’s book, this content-driven platform lets anyone start a story, and anyone else participate. The result, the app hopes, is a “twisting and turning chain of clips that make up a single Wheel,” or story. Think of it as Mad Libs with strangers — or your friends — no matter where you are.
“The volume of video being created grows exponentially each year, especially among young people,” said Wheel Video co-founder and CEO Paul Boukadakis, noting a shift in content from being self-focused to community driven. “What we’ve found is that there’s a strong desire to create together — it’s just been impossible to collaborate on mobile platforms.”
But now, that may be changing, thanks to Wheel. Whereas most content currently online is meant more for consumption than collaboration (let’s be honest, how much can you really interact with your friend’s Snapchat Stories or their Instagram posts?), Wheel hopes to tap into the desire to participate. The new app “empowers creators to collaborate and keep their content alive and open for re-interpretation, remixing, and surprises,” the company says. This, the team believes, could lead to an “unprecedented” level of connection among the Wheel community.
To start a Wheel, simply publish a video, or jump into any story thread created by another user. You can watch a continuous content stream, see a specific Wheel posted by a close friend or celebrity, or discover popular contributors and join their Wheel. I mean, Arnold Schwarzenegger is already on the platform, so you might as well check it out, right?
The app is free and currently available for iOS, with Android and desktop versions coming soon.
