Tout.com, the 15 second video sharing website (of which this blogger is a featured user, or “Touter”) was originally launched in 2010 around an iPhone app. And even though iPhones sales dominated the smartphone industry for a few years, Google Android sales leaped ahead of iPhone sales in 2010, before “flattening out” as one publication put it.
Still, it became an imperative for the Tout.com execs, CEO Michael Downing, Community Manager Gardner Loulan, and Scott Epstein in Marketing (and now joined by Katie Fountain as Marketing Manager), to speed the development of a Tout app for Android.
Before we get to that, here’s a video of my recent Tout.com, office visit:
The Tout app for Google Android, which is not officially out yet for another two weeks, works just like the Tout.com app for iPhone. You can use it to make the Tout 15 second videos, upload them to your Tout page and Twitter and Facebook. You can also use the Tout app for Google Android to “re-Tout,” (which is like re-tweeting) and to “like” other Touts, and to even send replies to Touts, starting a conversation stream.
Tout, And Other Apps, Are Powerful
This application is extremely powerful. And while Tout.com has a quasi-competitor in Viddy, they’re really different in that Tout has its own social network. You can start a Tout page for your own use, or to present a series of 15 second videos (or Touts) of an event you’re producing. Or both. The Touts can be linked to and embeded, Twitter tweeted, and Facebooked. (The one problem here is that as of now, the Tout video does not come up below your Twitter tweet, something Downing says they’re working to change.)
The next question is when will Tout.com come up with an app for the iPad? While many use the iPad for content viewing, it’s also designed for content production, and comes with a camera of its own. Thus, it’s possible to have a Tout app for the iPad, it’s just not with us as of this writing.
Stay tuned.