Taking advantage of their free time during the Covid-19 quarantine, David Abensur and Izel Levy came up with a fantastic idea that will help video-conference participants share videos and music in a truly seamless way.
So what gave you the idea to create the app?
We really wanted to take advantage of our free time at home during quarantine and noticed that there’s still much to be done in regards to the new era of video conferencing. At that time, we knew many people who wanted to share videos throughout their online meetings but couldn’t seem to find a solution that would prevent lags while they shared their videos. The only available solutions we could find were either very costly or didn’t seem to work very well.
This gave us the idea of creating something of our own, and we came up with YouSync. After studying Data Science and Cyber Security at ITC, we felt we could take on this type of challenge, and I’m happy to say today that we were right.
What does the app offer its users?
Users can now easily install YouSync as a Chrome Desktop Extension, and right away they can share videos across desktops in a way that is synced with all the viewers – similar to watching a live video on Youtube or Facebook. This allows our users to broadcast their videos during an online meeting in a seamless way – and of course for free. After installing the extension, the user just needs to create an online room and share its link with his friends and colleagues. Anyone who has the link will automatically be sent to the video stream that will be in sync between all the viewers.
What was the process of creating the app?
We first started with a POC program to make sure the basic behavior of the software was responding correctly. This part took us about a week to perfect. After completing the first stage of the code, we then spent a lot of time improving the actual synchronization, while we lowered resources and improved the UI/UX with the help of our close friends. After about a whole month of great teamwork, between myself and Izel, the app was ready to use and was fully automated.
Today we are working on improving the design, UX, and overall bugs that the software might have.
How do you see this app developing in the future?
Our main goal today is to increase our user base – so we can learn as much as we can about our users’ needs and ways of use. We plan on further expanding our product by adding features such as Host Broadcasting of messages to their guests, displaying the participants to the room’s host, adding Passwords Protected channels, and much more.
We aim for our product to be an all-in-all go-to app when It comes to sharing live content during a conference call. We see a certain advantage in the new era that has started with Covid-19 and believe that there’s a lot of room to improve existing services that will soon – if not already – become crucial elements to the success of this new way of living.
As a former student at ITC, what advice would you give our current students for their future success?
I would definitely say that one of the most impactful skills I’ve learned from ITC was the importance of good teamwork. Beyond the coding skills, and the ‘thinking outside the box’ mentality that ITC has given me, I think that what I value most today is my ability to work well together. This is something that was greatly encouraged during my studies at ITC, and today I understand the reason for that. Without the great teamwork that Izel and I were able to achieve, this app would not have come to life. So saying that I would definitely recommend for all ITC students to always try and work together on their class assignments – even when they feel that they can do it on their own. In the long run, this will be one of the most beneficial skills to have.
