{"id":342602,"date":"2017-06-02T22:29:03","date_gmt":"2017-06-02T14:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1498879"},"modified":"2017-06-02T22:29:03","modified_gmt":"2017-06-02T14:29:03","slug":"rheo-a-personalized-video-app-from-ex-apple-product-vets-launches-on-ios-and-the-web","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/rheo-a-personalized-video-app-from-ex-apple-product-vets-launches-on-ios-and-the-web\/","title":{"rendered":"Rheo, a personalized video app from ex-Apple product vets, launches on iOS and the web"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

On YouTube, you have to either know what it is you watch to watch and seek it out, or you can click through the site\u2019s suggestions of popular or trending content. A startup called Rheo<\/a>, founded by ex-Apple product veterans<\/a>, has a different take on video discovery. Instead of browsing by genre, publisher or chart position, viewers can browse by mood. That is, you can seek out videos to make you laugh, those that inform you, those that instruct or teach, those for times you want to chill, and more.<\/p>\n

Previously available as an Apple TV application<\/a>, Rheo this week expanded to both iOS<\/a> and the web<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rheo was created by\u00a0Alan Cannistraro<\/a>, an Apple product development veteran who previously spent 12 years at Apple working on apps like Remote, iBooks, and Podcasts. He later joined Facebook, where he worked on News Feed, Facebook\u2019s iOS autoplay video feature, and Facebook\u2019s Creative Labs, which built experimental apps like Slingshot, Rooms, and Riff.<\/p>\n

Co-founder\u00a0Charles Migos<\/a>, meanwhile,\u00a0worked at Apple for over a decade, where he created Apple News, as well as Microsoft, where he designed the company\u2019s home media experience. Migos joined Rheo in the first half of 2016.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis idea has been churning in my head for years,\u201d explains\u00a0Cannistraro, describing how he came up with Rheo. \u201cI\u2019ve picked up pieces along the way: learning how we interact with video from my time on Final Cut; thinking about how entertainment, mobile devices, and the home all fit together from when I built the first iOS app: Remote; understanding the attraction that people have to moving images over text, from my time building autoplay video at Facebook,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

This all solidified for Cannistraro one night in 2015 when he was traveling, he says. Exhausted, he checked into his hotel room and turned on the TV, hoping to relax. But instead of being able to just wind down, Cannistraro realized that the television\u2019s interface forces you to browse through a massive grid of content first \u2013 and this interface has carried over to today\u2019s online video services, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo days later, I quit my job and knew what I had to do,\u201d says\u00a0Cannistraro.<\/p>\n

On Rheo, you pick a channel to watch based on what type of mood you\u2019re in \u2013 in terms of what you want to watch, that is \u2013 and the app then personalizes the content to you using a variety of other factors.<\/p>\n

For example, Rheo\u2019s \u201cLaugh\u201d channel is for comedy; \u201cInform\u201d offers news coverage; \u201cSpark\u201d features creative content from artists, designers and musicians; \u201cLearn\u201d is for educational content; \u201cChill\u201d is music; and \u201cMove\u201d offers action sports.<\/p>\n

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These short-form videos are played in a stream that\u2019s further customized by things like what time of day it is, your interests, what\u2019s trending on Rheo, as well as your own behavior \u2013 meaning, what you\u2019ve previously watched, skipped, boosted (a vote up type mechanism), and shared to social networks.<\/p>\n

The promise is that the more you watch on Rheo, the more personalized your video streams will become as the service adapts to your input and actions.<\/p>\n

In addition, the new Rheo iOS app introduces a social networking component. You can record your reactions to videos you watch, and these reactions will then appear in your friends\u2019 streams. These personal videos are also saved to your \u201cReel\u201d in Rheo. Friends who visit your profile can view your video channel with all your shared reactions.<\/p>\n

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The content on Rheo comes from public sources, like Facebook and Twitter (via API), as well as formal partnerships, like Vimeo and Refinery 29.<\/p>\n

The nine-person, San Francisco-based startup isn\u2019t currently focused on revenue generation, they tell us, but they\u00a0previously raised $2.3 million in seed funding last year.<\/a><\/p>\n

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While Rheo will be challenged to attract users in a world where larger video platforms, like YouTube already exist, Cannistraro believes its curation element fills a void in the market \u2013 much like how Spotify\u2019s \u201cDiscover Weekly\u201d playlist of personalized content helped give it the edge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe long-term vision of Rheo goes far beyond being a video player. Instead, we think about media as an integral part of our environment,\u201d Cannistraro adds. \u201cNavigating apps, menus, channels, titles, etc, takes effort and attention,\u201d he says. \u201cThe next few years will see us move towards media being available ambiently, as effortlessly accessible as a glance at your microwave or alarm clock to tell the time, and contextually tailored to you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" On YouTube, you have to either know what it is you watch to watch and seek it out, or you can click through the site’s suggestions of popular or trending content. A startup called Rheo, founded by ex-Apple product veterans, has a different take on video discovery. Instead of browsing by genre, publisher or chart position, viewers can browse by mood. That is, you can seek out videos to… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

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