The group messaging app GroupMe has opened up its technology to other app makers, and today, Showtime’s Dexter app launched an update that shows off the integration.
If you haven’t heard of GroupMe, it’s allows you to set up your own text-messaging group — a private group chat on your phone. You can share your location, as well as activate a conference call with the group. It’s a slick technology that’s typically used around events, trips, projects and with families.
GroupMe just opened up an API for app developers to integrate the service, and Showtime is one of the first to give it swing. While on the Dexter app, clicking the GroupMe screen will initiate a registration process. I was expecting to be added to a GroupMe of Dexter fans, but instead, I was prompted to add my own friends via my pre-existing contact lists.
But since I don’t have an existing GroupMe account, the challenge is I don’t know which of my friends are Dexter fans, and I don’t want to spam random friends with out-of-context GroupMe registration invites.
This to me illustrates two big challenges for social TV: 1) the barriers to conversation must be incredibly low 2) the context of relationships must be tightly tied to the show. For example, GroupMe’s other integration makes more sense to me, tying the group-chat technology into the Lollapalooza Official App. If you’re visiting Lollapalooza with friends, you know who they are, and they’re in context with the show, which is a physical event.
Assuming Facebook made its chat feature available for app developers, that may seem like a better bet because you could screen friends by the TV shows they “like.” But another challenge arises here: perhaps only a couple of your friends have “liked” Dexter, and you need at least one of them watching the show at the same time to make a conversation. Not that exciting.
This illustrates why Twitter is the most popular real-time chat platform around TV, simply because of its open, public approach to conversation. Could there be a private-public hybrid approach that prioritizes certain conversations over others? Certainly, and it will be interesting to see how this evolves. Thoughts?