Miming into a hairbrush, reeling off favourite quotes from films, and covering internet catchphrases – all a lot easier since the arrival of lip-syncing app, Dubsmash.
The mobile app allows users to take videos either of themselves or others miming to pre-recorded audio clips. Film, music and internet snippets are popular, but users are also able to upload more personal clips.
Since launching in November 2014, the app has exploded in popularity around the globe – downloaded more than 50 million times across iOS and Android, Dubsmash has users in 192 countries and many different languages are used.
Interesting. Tell me more about how it works
It’s very simple. Dubsmash operates three main channels: Trending, Discover and My Sounds. All channels are pretty self-explanatory, but the key UI element is the sound categories on the “soundboard” (created by users).
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Currently there are more than 40 categories, including: Popular Vines, Awards Season 2015, Saturday Night Live, Chick Flicks and Politicians. Clips featured include musicians such as Drake, or famous films such as Zoolander, as well as commentary from sporting events.
There is also a search function for users looking for specific sounds. Users can upload their own sounds in My Sounds, and there is a favourite function to bookmark certain clips.
Once a user has chosen their sound, it’s as easy as miming into either the front-facing camera, or recording others. Users are able to add colour filters to their videos (known as dubs) and text annotation.
Previous dubs are stored in a My Dubs tab. Users are able to share their dubs via external messaging applications, including WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
Dubsmash does not have cloud storage itself for dubs (just the audio clips), which will keep costs down. But it’s possible to save dubs to phone-camera rolls, and to reupload to, for instance, Instagram or Vine. Depending on the functions of those apps, more filters or special effects can be added.
Who uses it?
Sign up, which is via email address, is a prerequisite to using the app. Users will then be asked to create a username, password and to enter their date of birth as the minimum age is 14.
The app has hit the number one spot in 29 countries, such as Holland and the UK. It has a current rating of four-and-a-half stars out of five on Apple’s app store and four on Google Play.
BBC Trending reports that many users are kids and teens. The app has also proven popular with celebrities. Jennifer Lopez, Cara Delevingne, Lena Dunham, Hugh Jackman and Rihanna have all uploaded dubs to Instagram (see below). Rihanna even premiered a preview of her single Bitch Better Have My Money on the app.
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Dubsmash is also a hit with celebrities in India, with Bollywood stars and badminton players getting in on the act. More unusual dubs have been recorded by a Swiss military unit and, er, a Tawny owl.
Instagram returns more than 2 million results for #dubsmash, and compilations are often uploaded to YouTube. Websites collating the best dubs have also been set up: topdubsmash.com, bestdubsmash.net, bestdubsmash.tumblr.com.
Who is behind the app?
Dubsmash is the creation of German developers Jonas Drüppel, Roland Grenke and Daniel Taschik, and produced by their Berlin-based company Mobile Motion GmbH (founded 2013). It’s the trio’s third attempt, however, at creating a smash app.
Previous attempts included Starlize, a music video app. When that didn’t set app stores alight, the company decided to focus on something simpler that lent itself to more private sharing.
“[Starlize was] similar to Dubsmash in the sense that it also used user-generated videos and external sounds. But we had the feeling that it was too complex for most users,” explained Grenke in a TechCrunch interview.
Dubsmash, by contrast, has a much cleaner user interface and simpler UX (user experience) – hence its popularity.
Hmm. Surely this is dodgy when it comes to copyright?
Yes, it’s an issue. Or could be. Most of the clips are unlicensed – film clips, song segments, audio from other people’s content. Dubsmash’s line is that problems have not yet been encountered, but that should they arise in the future, the app would work on the basis of “take down notices” to remove content that copyright holders object to.
It might be the case, however, that license holders choose to work with the app in an attempt to monetise. There’s also nuance to the law, there could be a difference in the rules when it comes to sharing copyrighted content privately (as in via WhatsApp message), and publishing it to a public platform (such as Instagram).
Of course, copyright content isn’t the whole of Dubsmash, so even if copyright became a larger issue in future, users would still be able to create dubs with animal noises or their own uploaded sounds.
What is Dubsmash 2?
Dubsmash 2 was a sockpuppet app on Android, purporting to be a sequel to the original app, which actually turned out to be malware bombarding users with porn. Dubsmash 2 has been removed from the Google Play store but is still around in other guises, so be careful.
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