After hearing about it on sunday from @lifesacatwalk I was all set to ignore the hype much like I always do when a new platform comes along. But on Monday afternoon I signed up. Due in part* because I saw their super SWANKY advert:
I mean come on! They have a silky smooth female voice over saying all the things we've been bitching about (boo algorithms, adverts etc.) WONT happen on Vero! What self respecting instagram lover who has watched their engagement fail off a cliff could resist! It felt open, honest and woke, But is it as good as it promises?
Lets start with the good stuff!
No algorithms: Since the Facebook takeover, instagram have ignored our pleases to reinstate the chronological order and kept their fancy-pants-tech-geek-computer-programme which push posts down the feed IT thinks aren't popular. My feed usually consists of three adverts and seven posts from a week ago instead of current 'just posted' images. This is particularly dumb when a post is scheduled to coincide with a memorable point in the year (Valentines Day, Christmas etc.) as this means you are STILL seeing valentines posts on 18th February. Bobbins eh? Vero is promising to pull no such technical shenanigans! How this will work when/if they get to a billion users is yet to be decided but for now its a real plus point.
No adverts: Which means the big guns can't buy space on your feed and get their annoying as all heck post about insurance above that of lovely friends chatting about lovely things!
Links: Theses can be clicked on directly from your post. Great for bloggers, no more #linkinbio rubbish!
Classification: You can split your connections into acquaintances, friends and close friends (they can't see what you call them) and then decide who sees your posts. Gives you a little rush of power choosing who fits in what category doesn't it?
Its free: At least for the first million users anyway then (supposedly) it'll be about tenner a year. ** UPDATE they have now surpassed their 1 MILLION USERS but are still offering the app free 'until further notice' due to how lacklustre the service has been up until now**
However...Some aspects of this platform are not currently running all that well. True its only at beta stage so this may change, but if you signed up today be prepared for the following:
The Bad Stuff!
Search Engine Issues: You can post separately on things like books, music, TV etc but the search engine is weak. Some books can't be found at all and when I tried to @ my sisters in a post, Vero told me they didn't exist even though they most definitely do. Turns out they needed to post something before they could be found even though we had already connected, super annoying. It's equally bad at finding people you know are on Vero but that you aren't yet connected to. You'll get anything from no results to an ever changing list of randoms... to both...
Follow or Connect: Decide whether you want to connect or follow and connect to your friends straight away because the bloody follow button LITERALLY disappears if you don't do this on the first go. Should you change your mind you need to disconnect and reconnect to be given the opportunity of doing both again and its a major pain in the hole!
SO. GOD. DAMMED. SLOW Much like the little town of Kingston Falls**, Vero is currently completely overwhelmed and fighting to stay alive which means the app is running like shit! Which leads me to...
Battery Drain While my battery lasted 1.5 days BV**** now I'm lucky if it makes it to 8pm.
And the truly awful WTAF stuff...
Hashtag Violation: Certain popular hashtags are always going to be searched but Vero seem to be having trouble keeping images of nudity out of the results. For example I searched for #Louboutin... About 10 pictures down I got a boob. No I'm not kidding. Am not adding the picture here but any that don't believe me please contact me directly and I'll show you! This NEEDS to be addressed pronto, there's nothing wrong with nudity but I didn't want nudity I wanted pretty shoes and I got flappy baps!
Bad Karma: Rumours that the Lebanese billionaire owner is not a nice guy have been floating around all week dogging the possible runaway success the app could have been. Vero of course have put out a statement saying we're nice, honest (am paraphrasing). The conspiracy theorist in me feels it wouldn't be out of the realms of possibility that a certain Zuckerberg owned company helped the rumour along*****. Either way its leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Not everyone is going to like it, and while it maybe be a little unfair to review it now as it is still beta, the fact is going viral means you get judged. The customer service team at Vero have an extremely limited time to get things ship shaped or, much like the Titanic, the ride will be over before it even really begun!
I'm giving it a bit longer before I power down completely, will you be joining me on Vero?
*for part read 100%
** ERM the town in THE GREMLINS! Jeez who didn't know that***
*** Me thats who. Had to look it up to complete the analogy... Its not even a very good analogy, I probably shouldn't have bothered.
**** Before Vero
***** I base this on NOTHING its a theory only!
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Hey Gorgeous, let me know what you think? (no trolling!)