RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Social media startup SpokeHub, which launched its app in December, adds augmented reality as a feature today in a technology upgrade to be unveiled as the firm formally opens its new office at The Frontier in RTP.
A demonstration of its technology is also available at YouTube.
“SpokeHub is the only social application today that provides AR experiences then gives the user a place to engage immediately afterwards,” says Richard Berryman, cofounder and vice president of business development for SpokeHub. “We’ve cracked the code as to how a brand can now create a revenue stream while using Augmented Reality.”
The co-founding team behind the app, Berryman, Robert Hartsfield, John York, John McAdory, and Terry Johnson, built SpokeHub because they believe meaningful, two-way engagement is next-to impossible to achieve through today’s social media and communication tools.
After closing on initial funding of more than $500,000 in December, the minority-owned firm launched Apple iOS and Android versions of its app.
They are reviving an older concept: chat rooms, though with more bells and whistles than the old AOL style chatrooms early Internet users may recall.
Even in its beta form SpokeHub obtained a celebrity as an official brand ambassador (George Lopez), was used to promote the screening of the film Marshall.
The founders built SpokeHub as a “true chat technology” from the start, and that’s what differentiates it from other social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Factbox: SpokeHub
- What it does: Provides a forum for communicating directly with friends, celebrities, businesses and others
- Features: user-friendly, ability to join or create communication ‘hubs’ around topics or interests, ability to message individuals directly, secure, customizable
- Where to get it: Apple AppStore or Google Play
