People aren’t really interested in buying fitness trackers or smartwatches yet, but a killer product with must-have apps could turn that around. We’re still waiting for a great wearable, but in the meantime, a new service called Quickie is getting in front of the first wave of apps made for the wearable age.
Quickie is so fast that it sometimes the app sends your message before you’re done writing it. You text, draw, create GIFs of your voice, or record voice messages and send them instantly. There’s no time for editing or hesitation, much like in a real conversation. Your recipient has time only to glance at your message before it disappears. If your note goes unopened, it’ll stick around 24 hours before vanishing. (And it’s too fast to screenshot, if that’s a concern.)
Who needs a keyboard?
The app isn’t trying to replace mainstays like WhatsApp, Line, or Viber, said founder Erez Pilosof. Quickie is designed for messaging with your closest friends and family, which is why you can only add eight contacts. The company is working on versions for Apple Watch and Android Wear, so you can get the full messaging experience without typing. On Android smartwatches, the next version of Quickie will include emoji shortcuts for communication without keyboards.
“If I want to tell my wife, ‘I love you,’ I can text her and she’ll see a bubble, ‘I love you,’ in the noisy messaging crowd,” Pilosof said. “Or I can sketch her a heart [on Quickie] and she’ll know I’m thinking about her and it’s much more intimate. We wanted to create something for the inner circle.”
Pilosof said the free app will remain ad-free, instead adding features for paid users. For $1 a year, you can add more than eight contacts. Other perks for the paid tier are on the way.
But limiting the number of people you can add as contacts within the app also limits Quickie’s potential for growth. Other messaging apps prefer you invite all of your friends for en masse on-boarding. Pilosof said his strategy might be slower, but it will keep users happy.
“If you invite people who are really close to you to communicate you in a different way, they’ll actually use it,” he said. “This is sustainable growth.”
Quickie is available Tuesday in the App Store and Google Play.