For this project I chose to base it around Houseparty, which is an app which allows you to video call of up to 8 people. I decided to choose this as my base for this project because during lockdown I would use this app many times to talk to many of my friends.

During the beginning of lockdown we had all agreed to use this app to communicate with each other because it was simple and easy to use (and most importantly free!). The app allowed us to stay connected and stay sane because for some people they can’t cope with just being locked in a house with their family, as much as they love them, sometimes they just need some privacy from their family to speak or socialise (virtually) and for the majority just some alone time, time to be away from everyone and everything so they could just be with their own thoughts. For example, at home I’m the man of the house because my dad left and started another family, but I still see him and have fun with him, and being the only male can be tough, especially when you’re the one who has to stop the arguments from escalating. That’s why it was good for me to talk to my friends everyday for some time because I could talk to them about certain things I could no talk about with my family.

Houseparty not only has the feature of allowing you to video call people, it also has games you can play as a bonus feature, me and friends would always play word racers (the middle image) and compete on who could get the most points, as you can see I won in this image. You could also play Pictionary, Trivia, etc. Recently they added karaoke, I tried it out once but never went in it again because the individual voices are out of sync and some people are louder than others, but the main reason is because I have a voice of a dying dog when I sing in front of others because I become so shy.

Houseparty was launched in 2015 but at the time it was called Meerkat, and it was officially called Houseparty in 2016. Houseparty is a social media app which is unlike the regular app, such as; facebook, instagram, etc. the app is designed so that you can’t socialise with strangers and the only way you can talk to others is by directly adding them through their username. If you’re about to join your friends ‘house’ (‘house’ is when you’re on call with others or ‘room’) and they’re on a call with someone you don’t know then the app will alert you saying that a ‘stranger’ or ‘a friend of a friend is in this house’.

Oct 27, 2020