Mixby: Would it be the new social platform for the next generation?
Do this situation sound familiar to you? You are invited to a birthday party, having a good time hanging out with new friends and enjoying the moment. You scroll through the camera roll when you get home but cannot find the perfect picture to post on Instagram. Then, you might sneak on others’ posts to hunt for a better photo. Even worse, you missed the chance to ask for the new friends’ socials at the party, and now it’s a whole new task to connect with them and ask for the birthday party photos.
If this sounds familiar, you might be interested in Mixby, the new social platform that provides a wholly unique experience for events.
What is Mixby?
“ Events” is the theme for the brand new social app ready to launch in 2022. The location-based analysis technology could help users find events and related information near them that they would be interested in. In addition, hosts, either individuals or companies, could better organize the events and understand their customers’ needs.
Once you enter a Mixby event, you can see the image posted by the host for a brief introduction of the event. Then, you are ready to post your own experience on the board to share with everyone at the party! Like other photo-sharing apps, users could add short captions and leave comments on other’s posts. Yet, unlike other social media apps, Mixby users could only upload photos taken simultaneously at the event’s location. In other words, people are encouraged to capture the moment without worrying whether the picture is perfect or not. It is less polished and filtered, easier to enjoy and share the moment without worrying whether you choose the ideal filter for every photo.
Another unique feature in Mixby is that people could vote for nine highlight photos of the event. The night photo would later be present on the event board that is ready to be shared on other social media platforms. The feature increases the interactivity among users and the app.
Connecting is also a big part of the Mixby events. Rather than asking for every new friends’ contacts at the party, you could connect to the attendees’ profiles of the events you join! If you choose to make your profile public, you could even share with others what events you have been to and link your contacts to make deeper connections. However, besides how convenient the feature sounded, the privacy aspects of the feature should be more carefully discussed. The app should provide more agency for users to control when and who they want to share their information.
Besides join an event, users could also create their own Mixby events! Users could choose between creating a Specific Event with customized values or a Quick Event using the defaults. The interface is straightforward for hosts to hold events on their preference.
Collective Storytelling - No Longer a Passive Audience
Collective storytelling means that the audience is also part of the creating process, they do not wait and watch the performance but be on the stage with the creators to shape the experience together. (Reilly, 2021) In the Mixby experience, audiences do not passively receive massages. Instead, they have the freedom to control and create stories on their own through Mixby’s technology.
Mixby is still in the process of testing and refining. Although the feature is already clear and easy to manage, minor UXUI problems still need to be solved:
- Phone Compatibility
Phones such as iPhone SE, Android phones have appeared minor problems while navigation the app. For instance, some phones cannot operate the front camera, lagging while uploading photos.
2. Not able to connect to other’s profiles by clicking on the name under
the post.
When scrolling through the photos post by the attendees, users would like to click into one’s profile when spotting an exciting photo. If Mixby could add in the feature, it would increase people’s chance to interact with others and be engaged in the events.
3. Direct Message/ Direct Event Sharing
Having a direct message feature help users to build a more intimate relationship with others rather than publicly commenting on each other’s post. (Janda, M., Lung, D., 2019) In this way, users could adapt a versatile way to connect with others in their preference. In addition, since Mixby is an event-based app, it would make more sense if users could share event info or invitation through direct messages to friends.
4. Host Announcement
Another feature that would be nice to include in the app is a Host Announcement feature. Imagine a big busy event where messages are hard to get across the room, how convenient it would be if the host could use the announcement feature to update important information through Mixby that would pop in everyone’s notifications?
Reference
Janda, M., Lung, D. (2019, November 26). Why Direct Messages are Important in Social Media. Jenda
https://michaeljanda.com/blog/why-direct-messages-are-important-in-social-media/
