Recently Instagram made headlines with its sale to Facebook for $1B (yes, that’s with a B). Already, people were looking how to cash in on other seemingly simple ideas. One tweet I read said something to the effect of
“I’m busy working on a video version of Instagram so I can be a trillionaire!”
Unfortunately for that user, the video version is already here – and it’s splashing headlines of its own.
It’s time to meet Viddy.
Viddy
What is Viddy you ask? It’s a simple way to shoot, edit, and share videos to social media networks, straight from your phone. It offers a plethora of options, including visual effects, music, transitions, and more. And with the click of a button, you can share the video with your friends … or the world.
This type of app provides a great opportunity to move into video-based ministry. If you’re like most churches, you are small and don’t have a lot of resources. Likely nobody on staff is a professional videographer, and probably nobody even knows how to do basic edits to simple videos. However, you probably have someone that owns an iPhone – and that’s why apps like Viddy and Instagram are so popular. It brings graphical editing to the masses.
Tested
I installed Viddy today to test it out, and it is suprisingly easy to use. As soon as I installed it and logged in via Facebook, I was greeted with 4 friends of mine that also are using the app. (3 of them are parishioners, indicating the importance of church leaders to get on board!) With the click of a button I was able to record a short video and apply visual and musical effects. It then asked if I wanted to share the video (of which I declined – who wants to see a video tour of my living room in crystallized coloring?) The pre-installed video filters are pretty limited, but they have a marketplace to download quite a few others – some of which cost money and others are free.
The only problem with Viddy is that videos are limited to 15 seconds. That’s pretty small whether you are trying to do something for your church or simply to share with friends. I understand not wanting to store long videos on their own servers, but it would be nice to let users edit longer videos and upload them to YouTube or Vimeo (if you need a longer video, I would try the Vimeo app). It’s still a new company, so hopefully that will come soon.
Learn more and download from the Viddy website.
Have you used Viddy? Have you found a use for it in your ministry?
April says
I’ll be glad when this comes to Android so I can test it out.