Airtime is the new video chat startup by Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning. Parker, the first president of Facebook, co-founded Napster with Fanning.
Airtime is their attempt at a grown-up product, a browser-based video chat service, like Chatroulette, that lets you seamlessly talk with friends and people who share your interests.
Key Features
Unlike Chatroulette, Airtime connected through Facebook, allows users to log on and take advantage of a number of video chat windows including a list of your friends they might want to talk with and a list of topics they might want to talk about.
While chatting with friends might be a little too boring for some users, Airtime lists trending topics such as "American Idol" and sets up public chats that include fans of that show. All what the users need to do is click on that topic and they will get set up in a video chat with someone else who also likes that show.
Airtime also takes advantage of a user's location in that it allows them to start a random conversation with someone who is on Facebook and lives in their geographic area.
Another advantage of the video chat platform is that you can further interact with people through watching YouTube clips together.
New York City played host to the official Airtime launch Tuesday, June 5, as Parker and Napster co-founder Shawn Fanning announced their latest business venture.
Why use Airtime?
Many critics have compared Parker's latest innovation to the once popular website Chatroulette, which hooked people up with strangers online for quick, random video chats. While the site claimed innocence, it gained a lot of negative buzz for being associated with people who were chatting while simultaneously being naked.
Airtime, which claims to be a safer alternative to the flopped site, is linked though Facebook. In doing so, it knows your real identity and can ban you in immediately if you show up for a video-chat lacking the appropriate clothing, according to Forbes Report. However, what users and analysts seemed to be more concerned about is answering the question of why people would want to use Airtime.
AllThingsD blogger Liz Gannes recently raised concerns of the site turning into just another Chatroulette. Will it fill up with spammers and skeezy dudes? Is it technically sound? But what is clear is that there are high expectations for Parker and Fanning's next act," Gannes wrote.
Others like Forbes's Anthony Wing are less skeptical, expressing high hopes for the new company.
"The excitement of meeting new people with whom you have no 'friends' in common, only interests, geography or kinks, are probably enough (to propel the product)," Anthony Wing Kosner wrote. "Parker told (Forbes writer Steven) Bertoni in an interview Sunday, 'Fun crazy things should happen online.' OK. Let the wild rumpus begin! (Once the technical glitches are worked out...)."
How To Get It?
- Head over to Airtime.com
- Click the teal-colored button in the middle of the screen that says "Launch Airtime"
- Click "Log In with Facebook"
- Click "Allow," which gives Airtime permission to access your Facebook friends' contact information, posts in your newsfeed, and Facebook Chat
- An Adobe Flash Player Settings menu will pop up, asking for permission for Airtime to access your computer's camera and microphone. Click "Allow"
- Save your settings (optional)
- Get chatting by selecting someone from your Facebook friends list, someone nearby, someone with common interests, or friends of friends.
Airtime is completely Web-based, so there is no need to download any software to computer. To use Airtime, the user will just need to be at least 13 years old with an active Facebook account. Airtime requires Adobe Flash 10.3 or higher, and a Webcam-equipped computer with the following system requirements: a 1.5-Ghz processor, 512MB RAM, and 1.5Mbps bandwidth.
For more information, head over to Airtime's FAQ page, where you will find instructions for editing your profile, troubleshooting tips, and security information.
Have you tried Airtime? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
