This is exactly why we set out to build Blink (YC SS ‘18), where you talk to friends face-to-face with video messaging, and share your plans to gather IRL for genuine, in-person connections. We think gen z will set a trend that bounces back from the social excess of the last decade, in favor of something more balanced and natural. This won’t necessarily mean ditching technology, but rather the technology evolving to facilitate healthy and more rewarding relationships.

The most popular social apps out there optimize video for broadcasting your life at your friends (and followers), but not so much for actual conversation with your friends. Their Stories format only amplifies this concept: show off what you’re doing now to everyone who’s watching. Who should be surprised that it feels like a popularity contest competing for who has the most perfect life?

What makes Blink different is a new video format we’re introducing that brings your words to life. Through a symbiosis of speech-to-text, NLP/NLU and kinetic typography, Blink captures your emotion and your words, resulting in video conversations that get the message across, sound or not! This is our foundation: Talk more, broadcast less. Message face-to-face, not with a text.

If you’d like to see a preview of what we’ve been cooking up (and you have an iPhone), you’re welcome to check us out in the App Store: https://blink.cm

We’d love to hear your feedback!