Are you angry and want the world to know what’s made you so mad? But you don’t want to upset anyone with how pissed off you are? No? Well, now you can anyway thanks to a new feature on cartoon video message app Zoobe.
The platform creates an personalised animated message by taking a recording of your voice, changing its pitch and adding it to a cute 3D character which moves its lips in synch with your words. Previously, you could only include moods like happy, sorry and cure – but now angry has been added to the mix.
The avatars, though, are still the cute characters they have always been; bear, bunny and cat – so your desire to vent your anger in a moment of fury may lose something in the message. But that, the company says, is the whole point; to vent your anger in a charming way.
Zoobe was originally launched on Facebook before the introduction of an iOS app last year. The messages can be up to one minute long and can be shared with friends via Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, email or SMS.
And if you want to confuse your friends with an angry-yet-somehow-cute message, you can. The new feature is aimed at when it’s “one of those days: the dirty dishes await you in the sink, your bus is running late and your colleague grumbles at you when you just walk into the office. Obviously it would have been better to stay in bed.”
But rather than shout and scream at people, Zoobe encourages you to express your feelings in a more pleasant way: “Usually the Zoobe characters are lovely little creatures. But now you can upset the bear, bunny and cat by choosing the mood-type ‘angry.’ Despite being mad, they are still adorable enough to make the recipient of your angry message react with a bright smile.”
The Berlin-based company was founded by award-winning director Lenard F. Krawinkel, who has previously worked on animated movies such as Back to Gaya, which featured Patrick Stewart and Emily Watson.
He told Silicon Allee last year: “It’s about a new form of communication – we are providing a platform for any character in the world, to make them speak and emotionally moving. With the big shift in text to video, from reality to digital, and a big shift in where we are socially, I don’t want to be in a second life where you have a constructed world around you. I want to make an animated ambassador for users’ own messages. Whether you want to be a monster or an angel, it’s all about self-expression.”
It’s hard to imagine being genuinely cross with something and your first thought being, ‘Quick – to Zoobe!’ But then it will appeal to people who use Zoobe anyway, for whom getting properly angry is probably a fairly rare happening – but wanting to send cute personal messages is a must.