What is HouseParty? Thanks for asking

HouseParty is a video chat app that was created in the United States in 2016 and became particularly popular among millennials. Those who download it use it for an average of 51 minutes per day. That’s comparable to Facebook and higher than other popular apps like Instagram, Messenger and Snapchat. 

The current coronavirus-related lockdowns have led to a resurgence in the app’s popularity around the world. It was downloaded 50 million times in the space of just a month, which is 70 times more than usual.

Other video chat services, like Zoom and Skype, are often used by companies for remote work, whereas HouseParty is mainly aimed at younger generations. That gives it more of a fun image than its rivals. 

OK so what can I do with HouseParty then?

It’s fairly basic compared to a lot of messaging apps, not having any emojis, stickers or filters. The main purpose of the app is to make video calls between up to 8 devices. 

You can also play games and quizzes like Time Up and Trivial Pursuit. When one of your friends opens the app, you instantly get a notification. As you can imagine that can get pretty irritating if you have a lot of contacts, but thankfully you can turn notifications off for selected or all contacts.

To download HouseParty, you need to set up a username and verify your cell phone number. The app accesses your phone contacts in order to find people you know. You also have the option to connect to Facebook or share your HouseParty profile link on Snapchat.

One big difference with other social media apps is that friends of friends can join video chats and games. By default when you open the HouseParty app, your personal video room goes live and any of your contacts can join. 

But, are there any privacy issues ? Should I avoid using HouseParty then? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions !

If you want to know what is HouseParty in french : https://podcasts.ba-ba-bam.com/maintenant-vous-savez/202004080500-quest-ce-que-houseparty.html

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