Let’s talk about user acquisition today, especially about increasing user engagement when searching for and installing the app. Multiple app store optimization blogs mention that having a video of your app or gameplay increases the chances of a user installing the app as compared to static images.
At GetSocial we work extensively on driving referrals from friends (aka word of mouth marketing). We know that most of the referrals these days come through private messaging channels like WhatsApp, FB Messenger, SMS, etc. These channels are no longer just pure text. Take Snapchat, for instance. It puts photos and video content first.
Still, we mostly use text and links when it comes to app invites. But when you use rich media in your invite text, it improves the user engagement and increases invite to install conversions by 40%.
There are multiple ways to approach this – Using ReplayKit from Apple (no Android support obviously), Megacool, GetSocial, and other homegrown solutions. A couple of years ago, even Unity came up with their own service called Everyplay, which got quite popular but was discontinued in October 2018. That clearly leaves us with the options listed before.
So let’s analyze the available options and the best use cases for each of them.
Screenshot or GIF Capturing
We all love sending GIFs to each other in conversations. A great GIF in a great context is worth a thousand words. Now when someone sends you an app invite with a GIF that shows you their best moment in a PvP fight or an epic car wreck, instead of a static marketing image, wouldn’t it be a lot more interesting? We think a sneak peek like that into the game not just makes the invite more personal, but also instantly hooks the recipient’s interest.
DIY Solution
Developers like to reinvent the wheel. It is recommended you consider the build vs buy decision when starting a project like that. It’s not complicated to build an easy frame capturing library, but you’ll be missing all the linking infrastructure and attribution behind it.
What’s more, it takes you away from what your core business needs.
Simply put, why reinvent the wheel when you can build upon a free open source GIF recording library for Unity and Native iOS. Check it out, send pull requests and start recording GIFs almost instantly.
Megacool
Megacool lets you record gameplay GIFs and share them via multiple channels. There are multiple ways to configure capturing too. They handle GIF and MP4 conversion preparing files for different sharing channels and enable deep links with rewarded referrals. Additionally, you get access to analytics around sharing and see the shared GIFs.
GetSocial
At GetSocial we care about the whole social layer of mobile apps and look for ways to make each part of the marketing funnel more human and personal. We believe that GIFs are just a part of the whole suite of social features your app may need.
If you need a complete social layer in your app with rewarded installs, friends graph, in-app communities, activity feeds, push notifications, automatic re-engagement flows – GetSocial is the way to go.
Recorded gameplay GIFs can be shared inside in-app communities, with friends as rewarded app invites, and inside push notifications. Just integrate the open-source GIF capturing library with the GetSocial stack of tools.
Feature Comparison
| GetSocial | Megacool | |
| App Invites | y | y |
| Native Integration w/ Chat and Social apps | y | y |
| Install Attribution and Referral tracking | y | y |
| Deep Linking | y | y |
| Web to App Conversion | y | n |
| Prioritize order of invite channels | y | n |
| Localization support for invite text | y | n |
| Marketing Links | y | n |
| Gameplay recording | y | y |
| Time recording | y | y |
| Capture Frame Recording | y | y |
| Highlight recording | n | y |
| Timelapse recording | n | y |
| Configure capturing properties | y | y |
| GIF previews | y | y |
| Rewarded GIF sharing for invites | y | y |
| GIF sharing through Push Notifications | y | n |
| GIF sharing in Activity Feeds | y | n |
| Social Graph (Friend graph) | y | n |
| Activity Feeds | y | n |
| Push notifications | y | n |
| Analytics | y | y |
| Rich attribution analytics | y | n |
| Custom Event Tracking | y | n |
| Segmentation and Targeting | y | n |
| Third-party integrations | y | n |
Conclusion
Although Megacool and GetSocial both offer GIF recording and sharing functionality, the services they offer differ.
Megacool’s core competency is in GIF recording with different recording types, especially Highlight recording.
Whereas GetSocial focuses on the entire user journey through its vast number of social features to acquire, engage, retain and re-engage users. Given GIF capturing is not our core product we decided to make it available as an open source project so that you can get started with it easily.
If you need a complete solution to boost your app’s growth, engagement, and retention, sign up for GetSocial today and we’ll show you how to build a viral layer over your app in no time.
