I was browsing Product Hunt’s website today and came across a new app that I thought was worth sharing. Unicorns seem to be a popular fantasy animal today. That being said, why not use the name to create an app in order to grab the attention of people? Well, the team of developers and designers at Lookback did just that.
Lookback is a company located in San Francisco where a team of individuals created Streaming Unicorns. It began as an internal project. However, when the team at Lookback ended up loving the concept due to its useful qualities, they decided to get serious and pursue the app further. So what is the app? Streaming Unicorns is a free Mac app that allows you to live stream your iPhone’s screen so you can broadcast your latest app to test usability or walk your mom through how to turn off her location on her Facebook account. You can use the app for feedback, mobile gaming, bug reporting, and much more. The possibilities for streaming are endless with Unicorns.
With Streaming Unicorns (or Unicorns for short) you must use your Mac with OSX 10.10+ to share the screen on an iOS 8+ device. You may choose to use your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to stream your screens. In order to view your stream (as as well as others to view) you will need a browser with a good connection. The program not only shares your screen but also shares the audio you have on the device.
How Does Streaming Unicorns Work?
First you must download the Streaming Unicorns software on your Mac. Once downloaded, you will be asked to sign in using Twitter. The company asks that you authenticate your account by providing your email. You will then be prompted to plug in your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to begin streaming. Once you have connected the device of your choice, you may press the stream button on your Mac. You will be provided with a Twitter URL for your stream that you can share with others. You can also invite anyone you like to your stream. Your stream will have live tweets from anyone viewing your stream.
My Thoughts on Unicorns (Not the real ones…)
I loved how easy it was to download and begin using their software. It is fairly straightforward how to use. I can see how it might not be as easy for those users who don’t have a Twitter account. They are forced to either create an account or they can’t use Unicorns. I hope they have more options for signing on in order to broadcast. Perhaps they will add a feature for signing in with other social media accounts or with an email address.
Their website states that you can create a private or public stream, however, I was unable to find where I can adjust those in my settings. Currently, the preferences tab for Unicorns is greyed out. I think this is something they are working on but I am not sure. For my peace of mind, I’d like to have the option to change this.
The overall design of Unicorns is simple as you really only have one button to press to begin using. If you have a bad Internet connection, you probably won’t be able to broadcast. I generally received 1-5fps. I did have some trouble connecting to my live stream. When I did connect, it was lagging quite a bit. I hope they can find a way to make the streaming faster. I did like that you could replay your stream. I think this will work well for developers or really anyone just in case you didn’t catch it all the first time around.
Unicorns is still in the prototype phase as they wanted to see how the app would progress. Lookback’s team would like to add more features and make other changes to the app. So hold tight as they continue working on making the app better. I see a lot of potential for Streaming Unicorns and am excited to see what they will do in the future.
Does this seem like an app you would use? If so, what would you use Streaming Unicorns for?
