The first app to explore the map of live streams on Facebook

[wsoftvn]

Recently, Facebook has globally launched the live broadcasting feature which results in thousands of live streams at anytime of the day. Though there is an interactive map on the web (www.facebook.com/livemap - PC version) for the users to explore and watch live videos, the mobile users are not able to use this map. The map also lack of features like keyword search, a list of most-viewed channels, or a list of local channels. SOVI - has been released to complement those limitations of the web-based interactive map. With SOVI, we provide mobile users as well as PC users a smooth interactive map showing all broadcasting streams globally. Besides, users are capable of searching for specific streams by keywords, watching most-viewed streams, and filtering streams by the user location (neary by streams). The main features of SOVI are:

• Map-based visualization of broadcasting streams
• List of recommended streams (official content)
• List of most-viewed streams
• List of nearby streams
• Search for specific streams by keyword
• Login to Facebook to watch the original video and give comment

Download the app here for FREE.

Here are some screenshots of SOVI.

PC Home

Mobile Home

 

[Saijin_Naib]

Fairly well made.

Some suggestions:
Allow users to "save" favorite streams and to watch them for updates. Along those lines, allowing users to watch previously broadcasted/saved streams would be awesome.

Allow users to pin streams to the Start screen.

When browsing in modes other than map, you can't see where the stream is from geographically. This is a missed opportunity.

Otherwise, very interesting, though I am completely out of touch with this and just don't get the appeal of watching people's livestreams haha. Oh, the internet continues to amaze.

 

[wsoftvn]

As long as the user is interested in this app, I will develop all those suggested features. Thanks for your comments!

 

[Saijin_Naib]

No problem! I used it last night on my L640 (those comments were from my Desktop), and I have one more:
Allow the app to be used in portrait orientation on "smaller" screens like my Lumia 640 (720x1280). That'd be much more natural and enjoyable.

 

[Saijin_Naib]

More observations:
When videos are "grouped", the user has to tap to exapand the group into individual points. This often makes the points seem to "disappear" as they may exist off-screen. If the user zooms out to find them, that area gets grouped again. This is a pretty horrible and frustrating interaction.
Have them ungroup as the user zooms in.

Also, the grouping doesn't make sense. The grouping for the city 1.5hr West of me should NOT contain all the streams in the city I live in, and the map shouldn't show my area as empty.

 

[wsoftvn]

I totally agree with and understand your point. The only problem is the performance. Since there are around 3000 streams at one time, plotting them on Microsoft Map SDK is terribly slow. I am trying to solve the problem.

Zooming out makes the points grouped, so you can try panning the map while an update of the app has not yet been available.

 

[Saijin_Naib]

Yeah, I can understand how performance would be an issue. Maybe you could try to set a fixed number of individual points that can be displayed per screen area. This way, no matter the zoom level, there will be a consistent density of points and consistent performance. You shouldn't be drawing anything that is off-screen. Does the Map SDK allow for visibility culling to help performance?

 

[wsoftvn]

The latest version brings Periscope videos on the map.

 

[Saijin_Naib]

Addition of Periscope is great. Can we get a livestream filter so we can choose what services we want to see?

Also, on the map, they should be visually distinct even in the "aggregate" view.

Is it possible to add other livestream services to SOVI as well as general IPCam traffic?

Thanks for the great work so far! I'm watching a tractor pull in my area haha.

Bug?:
I've noticed sometimes the streams disappear when you click them. Can we get a refresh button on the GUI or in the menu or via right click/tap+hold?