Your opinion matters

20 August,2021 08:15 AM IST |  Mumbai  |  Shunashir Sen

We get 22-year-old student Aarzoo Khalfay to try out noo-gah, a new app that encourages millennials to speak their minds on sundry subjects

The app contains videos of people expressing their opinions


I had a problem while signing up after downloading the app because I initially used my primary email address and they threw me out of the page after asking for the OTP. But when I tried the same username and email, they said that it was occupied, so I had to use a different email address and phone number to create my account.

The user interface is nice; it directly shows you where the videos are. You don't have to wait to see what lies ahead. They also have a search bar like, in Instagram where you can choose different subjects like culture or current affairs.

Then there are these things called ‘gems', which are cool. These are essentially points that are credited to you based on the number of videos you watch. I guess they are added when you upload a video as well, though I didn't have the time to post one myself. But I don't know what the purpose of these gems is because they haven't specified what you get to do with them. I am assuming that they help you scale different levels of access; it would have been nice if in the ‘Intro' section, they had specified clearly what the gems do.

Aarzoo Khalfay

They could also have enabled videos in the comments section, since people could have then countered a video with their own opinion to show both sides of the coin. Another downer is that you have to spend at least two to three seconds on each video before you get an idea of what it's subject is, and that can be a hassle if you realise that you aren't interested in the subject. Hashtags can be used in a better way.

But I think an app like this is important. Instagram has been censoring content left, right and centre. They don't listen to your complaints either, and people are hardly made accountable for what they post. I feel that noo-gah can address that, if they somehow make it possible to trace the original poster when a video of something like mob violence goes viral. That would be really good to see. They might also want to attract more brands or influencers to build a bigger user base, because people follow such accounts.

If I had to put up a video, I would probably talk about gender or freedom of speech, which is what the app developers are trying to promote. I would recommend noo-gah to my friends because Instagram has become tiring. This app has the potential to add value [to someone's life] if substantial issues
are discussed.

Log on to Google Play Store to download the app

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