What is ScreenTribe?

ScreenTribe is an application that allows users to experience television and movies in a whole new way. It’s a social service for people who love media. With ScreenTribe, users can see what their friends are watching or share what they’re watching with friends. Every time someone shares what they’re watching, they earn points. The points can then be redeemed later for real life prizes like movie tickets or gift cards. ScreenTribe is a place for people to interact with the shows and movies they love. Users can rate something, comment on it, like it or even tune in. There are many ways to experience media. ScreenTribe enriches the viewing experience by making it social and engaging.

Back in August I wrote a blog about Who is the best app between Miso, GetGlue and Hot Potato for sharing activities? A lot has changed since that blog post, for one Hot Potato is no longer around, they got bought out by Facebook speculated at $10 million, GetGlue teamed up with HBO to do checkins, Miso loaded up with new features.  But there is another great app in competition called ScreenTribe.

ScreenTribe is available on iPhone, Android and iPad.

My feedback after using ScreenTribe

After using ScreenTribe I noticed this app is well built.  When you first sign up it asks for your location and cable provider (I’m almost certain this is to make better predictions on what is on TV during your time).  I think this adds a very big feature going against GetGlue and Miso because it adds more precision on searches.  I’m a fan of Miso before being aware of ScreenTribe and noticed a few differences right away:

• I did not notice any images that were not available on ScreenTribe but did notice several with Miso.  I think it’s very important when sharing on Facebook, everything being shared on wall posts should be visual.  Not having the image to share on Facebook kinda avoids the point of sharing it.  When my Facebook friends see a poster of a movie or show it will get more attention and notice than a wall post without one.
• Sports is a BIG key part for me.  ScreenTribe does actually a great job on displaying sporting games.  On my recent blog I mentioned it’s real important to sports fans to be able to post what game they are actually watching instead of just posting “Digi Jeff is watching MLB”. My friends want to know what game I’m probably watching and if they see their team is playing my team, this will engage conversation and smack talk. With ScreenTribe I can search for a sport, for example: NBA and click the ‘Tune In Now’ button and select the game!  This is a great system which I think relates to why you choose your cable provider when you sign up so their system knows. Miso has also made several updates to their app which shows the games playing.

Under the account settings on ScreenTribe I am able to choose what services I want to share with: Facebook, Twitter, Netflix. I connected my Netflix account but after watching a movie on Netflix it didn’t do anything, I was unsure what’s being shared or how that is being used.  What I think would be really cool is if you watched a movie on Netflix and it automatically shared to the services you have enabled (Facebook/Twitter).  That way it eliminates tuning in from the app, it’s automatically shared.

After tuning into a show/movie there is an option to choose ‘Ways to Watch’: Live, DVR, Online, Disc.  I’m unsure how these are being used, they might be used towards their point system.

I think every app I have used (Miso, GetGlue, Hot Potato, ScreenTribe) to share what I’m watching has been a positive experience on every app, the hard part is narrowing down which app suits best for me.  I find myself going back and forth between them all.

UPDATE: We try to verify all of our tune ins. That’s why we ask you for your location and your provider. So if you enter the correct channel number your episode or movie is on, we’ll give you more points. That way no one can cheat, and the system is more fair. When you’re at the theater, we verify that you’re actually there and the movie is playing at that time or very close to that time. Anytime a user verifies their tune in (Live or in theaters) they receive more points. We also plan to use the location information to better recommend now playing shows, etc.

When you link Netflix you can view your recently watched feed. This is just a way of adding more functionality for our users. In the future we plan to verify tune ins with Netflix. We also want to add some deeper integration with Netflix that could allow automatic tune ins, etc.