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The first mistake is thinking you can fix it yourself. A kitchen sink is an understandable device, one you can surely wrangle. 30 minutes later you are down a sink, and looking for a plumber.
In those moments, you wish that the world shared your sense of urgency to remedy your problem. That wish might not be granted but your other wish will be. Streem can beam an expert into your (augmented) reality to help you assess your damage.
Streem uses Twilio Video, Sync, and SMS to bend time and space, to pair experts and consumers together in a mobile based, augmented reality video chat.
When you contact a plumber, they can send you a Streem invite link via SMS. Once you download the Streem app, you press one button and you’re connected with that plumber in a video chat. The plumber can see and assess the damage you’ve done without having to make the trek over to your house.
Streem – Intro Video from Streem on Vimeo.
Yep, Your Sink Is Broken. AR Can Help
You probably don’t know what part of your sink is broken. That’s why it’s still broken. But the expert knows. Using Streem’s AR capabilities, the expert can tap on their screen to add a glowing arrow on the trouble spot. Using Twilio Sync, you’ll see that arrow overlaid on your video stream. That arrow stays anchored. Even if you pan your phone camera away from the sink, the arrow will be there when you pan back to it.
Sure, mapping 3D space using augmented reality is cool. But, saving money and time is still cooler.
Typically experts like plumbers or HVAC pros take one trip to diagnose a problem, one trip to get the parts they need, and another trip to fix the problem. Streem condenses those steps, and takes sitting in traffic out of the equation.
Using augmented reality and image recognition, Streem can save pros from scouring the hardware store for a certain part. Streem can recognize and read text, instantly identifying appliance models and parts during a video call. The key word there is “instantly”.
Making Conversations Easier with Video
When you reluctantly put the AR bells and whistles to the side, Streem is really fostering a conversation between two parties. If one party’s connection stalls out, or if their voice gets garbled, the interaction itself suffers. Streem was acutely aware of this fact when choosing a provider to power their video chat.
“We’re down to a place where milliseconds have an incredible impact on the user experience within the app. That’s work we’ve done on our side. But we’ve also been able to engage the engineers on the Twilio side who are pushing the video platform forward,” says Patrick Ezell, CRO at Streem.
Streem wants to continually push to be on the forefront of AR and video chat. That’s not possible if your video chat provider can’t push with you. Streem picked Twilio Video to power their platform early on, knowing they had a platform to grow with.
“We are doing something new. For instance, the way that we’re able to sync the 3D world and the video and keep that locked in sync. Those are problems we haven’t seen people solve well yet.”
The Streem crew’s ability to solve new problems is in lockstep with their growth. They’re not resting on their laurels after breakthroughs in 3D mapping, AR, and data synchronization.
“We wanted to be with a company that was going to continue to iterate and grow and push their product forward. That’s incredibly important to us,” says Ezell. “The fact that they listen to our feedback, provide help and make improvements because of our feedback, that’s exactly what we want in a partnership.”