I often read articles about the struggle to maintain friendship in adulthood, but I don't read much about how to solve that problem.
When I went looking for a solution, one of the platforms I came across was Marco Polo, a private video-based messaging app with artificial intelligence capabilities. What caught my eye is that Marco Polo is focused on creating asynchronous connections (no need to meet at a particular time!).
You're as locked up as you sit on a virtual call with a loved one through a virtual meeting, so whenever you have the time to leave a video message, it's tempting.
What is Marco Polo and how do you use AI?
Partners and parents Vlada Bortnik and Michał Bortnik, who originally founded Joya Communications in 2012, launched Marco Polo in 2014 as a way to model purposeful work for their daughters. (And they were tired of coordinating Skype calls in different time zones and were looking for something that felt authentic.
The app's name was inspired by the game where kids play in the pool, as the platform includes the same kind of interaction between humans when connected.
After a 7-day free trial, Marco Polo is $60 a month for one account, $120 for six accounts, and $120 if the whole family (or group of friends) is needed in the plan.
Implement AI in several ways. First, in a closed caption, the AI will automatically transcribe what is being said in the message. Marco Polo also provides AI-generated transcripts and summaries. Convert video messages into searchable text.
For more information about this, we contacted the Marco Polo team. I've returned to the FAQ page that contains information about AI and company data privacy policies. The page states that “Marco Polo uses AI software to internally process closed captions and transcripts.” It also states that third parties may use to process summaries and in certain circumstances it may process transcripts. Rather than providing further information about how AI tools work through these three features, it refers to a link about its technology partner.
AI is used to create a short written summary based on the summary, what each video message is. Therefore, every time you send or receive a message, AI uses natural language processing to help you summarize the content. (For those who are noisy about everything they are engaged in, including video messages from friends and loved ones.)
According to the company, more than 4 billion Polos have been sent video messages sent to app chats or groups.
How to use video messages with friends using Marco Polo
Marco Polo is available on iOS and Android.
- Open the app and create an account using your name, profile photo and phone number. This procedure is for syncing the app with your phone contacts.
- Allowing access to contacts allows the app to show Marco Polo who else is and invite others to the platform. I had no friends who already used Marco Polo, but I sent an invitation to four of my craft-focused friends who wanted to try it out.
- To start a conversation, locate and tap the plus sign on the home screen. Here you can choose New Chat or New Group. You can chat with one-on-one or groups of up to 200 people. If you already have friends in the app and want to join a group chat, the new group allows you to choose from the active users and contacts you want to access Marco Polo. For this, tap on the group name at the top to select it Add people or Invite us through the group link.
- Click to start recording your message start … and Stop When it's finished. No matter which subscription model you are using, there is no time limit for video messages. Plus, group messaging friends can see it whenever they like. (I think of Imessage Voice Notes and the current date Voxer, but videos have been added.)
- For fun, tap the effects icon to add audio filters, text and drawings to your video message, and toggle back and forth between the front and rear cameras. You can also tap Photo Polo to select a photo or video from your content gallery. So this feature is much like recording a story-head summary or audio on Tiktok, Instagram and now, even LinkedIn.
Another fun way to navigate Marco Polo is to explore the playback controls. Once you have a paid subscription, you can place it at double speed, send emoji responses, and add specific conversations to your favorites. Of course, standard community controls here are also available, such as group permissions. Rename the chat and record a welcome message to new members.
Personally, I liked going back to the website and checking out stories that helped us get closer to each other. There are sifting categories such as corporate culture, impact, romance, and wellness.
Do I need to use Marco Polo?
If you're looking for a casual way to video messaging, Marco Polo can be useful to you. Upgrading after Freetier provides fun add-ons like video speed control, cloud storage, and custom polo thumbnails, as well as all AI-generated features. (Get 30 days of storage with a free trial version.)
For those worried about privacy, Marco Polo points out that it remains a caption, transcript and summary. Furthermore, no data is used to train AI models. You can also opt out at any time by accessing Settings and disabling the transcription service. However, when you do that, the platform becomes a bit flatter. This is because you lose the main function to pay. However, if you are privacy conscious and exceed the possibility of a data breach, this may be important to you.
If you're in a busy group of friends, looking for ways to connect with family (especially older people), or want to maintain connections with people in different time zones, Marcopolo is a simple yet fun option to bring everyone together in a low pressure format that doesn't require you to coordinate your schedule.
And my personal favorite, it never rings. You open it and interact with the person you like at any time.
Now it's asynchronous.
