An innovative group messaging app adds human expression to digital communication
Developed by Aaron Zinman at MIT Media Lab in collaboration with Google alumni, Gather lets users send content to their friends and family in the form of youtube videos, GIFS and images, and receive a brief live action video reaction right back. A blend of snapchat and an emoji board, Gather aims to capture subtle human emotions, gestures and personality in a away that is generally lost in translation in standard SMS/Emoji communication.

Gather is socially driven, enabling users to send content and reactions to groups of friends, encouraging shared group responses to content. Video responses are ephemeral, deleting themselves much like snapchats, but capture an instant and genuine reaction to the content you share. Driven by an increasing desire amongst users for seamless transitions between communication platforms, Gather brings a human element to text based communication by allowing users to generate their own ‘human emoji’ set, personalising and enhancing their digital relationships.

For more on innovative texting apps, read our piece on Confide, an app that deletes users text messages after reading, thus removing the permanence of SMS communication.