With a goal to impress users in 10 seconds or less, one app maker heeds years of development experience to create a lip sync video editor easy (and seamless) enough for anyone. This week, content creation app Flippy (Meograph, Inc.) has moved out of beta, with a new social feature called Multi-Flip. We hear from Flippy’s founder on the challenges of building a mobile video editor for a generation characterized by short attention spans.

For those unacquainted with Flippy, this app allows users to create video clips, but instead of creating content from scratch, users insert their faces in popular video clips.

With the exit from beta comes a new feature called Multi-Flip, allowing users to invite a friend to play the other character in multi-character clips.

How to use Flippy

First off, you can download the app for free on iTunes. Once the app is downloaded, you are welcome to browse the app even if you don’t have a Flippy account. The Flippy app itself is pretty straightforward. When you launch it you will see a search bar at the top and three tabs: Discover, Collections, and My Flips.

The Discover tab allows you to see random flips, as well as find which flips are Multi-Flips by tapping on the icon for the two faces. Clips are either from YouTube or iTunes, and users can either see the whole video on YouTube, or purchase the video from iTunes when they hit the more button on the far right of the clip represented by the standing ellipses.

Collections allow users to see flips based on categories including Music Vids, Determined, Bummed, Action, Proud, Insults, Confused, Friendship, Worried, Warnings, Angry, Annoyed, Stoked, Reflective, Inspiring, Romance, Defensive, Impressed, and Aggressive.

The third tab is where all your flips can be found, and you have the option to backup your flips to the cloud or just save everything on your device. This is also where you choose whether to upload flips for public or private viewing, as well as delete flips. To delete, just tap on the more button on the far right of the clip represented by the three dots.

You need to sign up to start recording your flips, which you can do by either submitting an email and password, or using your Facebook account for faster setup. You will then need to permit the app to access your device’s camera.

Once an account is setup, you can start recording flips. Choose a clip of a music video, from YouTube, or movie/TV clips from the app’s Discover or Collections tabs.  After choosing, the clip will be played and you can start practicing the line while being able to see where your head will go.

Users also have the option to choose how their head will appear by tapping on the icon on the left lower corner adjacent to the start button. You can choose among head, freestyle and selfie options.  A preview of the flip will be created and you have the option to redo it or save it. If you hit save, you will be asked to give Flippy permission to access your Photos app. Once saved, you can simply hit done at the bottom of the screen and review or upload the clip later, or you can immediately share your flip via SMS, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, or Whatsapp.

For Multi-Flips, you need to select a clip with an icon of two faces. You will then select which character you want to play, hit record and save. You will then be asked who will play the other character, who will be invited via text, Messenger or WhatsApp.

Though users can share created flips to social media or their contacts, one cannot search for content created by other users at this time, though we may expect that this will be an added feature in the future.

Why it’s different

There are various content creation apps available today, but what makes Flippy stand out is that users don’t need extensive time or video-editing skills to make a Flip. All they need to do is pick a clip, have their head superimposed on a celebrity and practice their lines. 

Misha Leybovich, CEO and Founder of Meograph, claimed that Flippy has “already reached top 100 on the charts in 100 countries in just a few weeks in beta.” Leybovich also boasts that users spend an average or four minutes using the app and create up to six flips per day. 

“We’ve been building content creation apps for four years, always around the theme of personalizing popular media.  Flippy was a natural outgrowth of some of our prior efforts, and we liked the simplicity and fun of it, plus the fact that the tech is quite hard (and patent pending) so as it does get even bigger it’s quite differentiated and defensible,” Leybovich stated when asked about the inspiration behind Flippy.

Developing for lip sync madness

Musical.ly and Dubsmash are just two popular lip syncing apps that are available today and apps that Flippy is competing with. Though one might view Flippy as limiting as only the face of the user will be seen, it will appeal to users who aren’t too keen on putting on elaborate performances.

“Everyone is creative and expressive, but not everyone has the technical skills to make awesome content. Apps that make it easy to create turn everyone into a creator, and indeed consumers now expect creation apps to provide value easily and quickly (like within 10 seconds),” Leybovich explained. He also added that if you can’t give people value within 10 seconds, they will move on to the next big thing.

Though easy to use, creating Flippy is not without its challenges. Leybovich explains that the main challenge they encountered when building the app is how to make things look frame-perfect across a range of devices, without its ease of use getting lost along the way.

As for the legality of its operations, since it only takes a small clip from the original video, show or film, and a link for the original source is provided or users are redirected to iTunes where it can be bought, plus flips are artistic interpretations of the video, it is not breaking any copyright laws. Also, Flippy is starting to work with content owners regarding proactively putting their clips in the app providing a way for users to share their work and become a star.

You can checkout flips below:

Photo by Nick Moise