Nocam is a new social video programme that turns off the camera so that you can’t see how you appear while filming, which is a creative notion to make social networking more authentic. The goal is to remove the friction that results from viewing a preview of your photograph, which frequently makes users hesitant to publish or frantically add adjustments and filters to improve their appearance.

Nocam thinks that this idea more accurately captures how people interact in everyday life—when we aren’t staring into a mirror that shows us how we look, that is.

“You know what you’re pointing at — why do you need to see this preview?,” asks Nocam’s co-founder and CEO Justin Spraggins. “The second you’re looking at what you’re about to capture, you get stuffy about it,” he says. “You’re now framing it — it doesn’t feel like it is. You’re now performing in whatever way to create content.”

The startup’s (Snack Break) earlier forays into mobile social networking gave rise to the concept of Nocam.

In the beginning, the company released a short-form video software called Popcorn that allowed users to record brief messages, or “pops,” that could be shared in place of longer emails, SMS, or Slack. This program’s goal was to make business communications more enjoyable. But the company also realized they weren’t prepared to go after the enterprise market because they were up against stiff competition from bigger companies like Loom.

How to get access to Nocam’s new social video app?

Similar to other social apps, users must authenticate with their phone number before granting Nocam access to their address book to discover friends. The first request for a video recording follows. Nocam’s whole design revolves around prompts for recording, but initially, they will be driven by the system. You can also get prompts from your new pals as you add more of them.

Features of Nocam

Nocam can challenge you to perform a particular dance, spin around, or simply publish what you’re doing right now. When you start recording, the camera is blurred and the prompts will include a random audio clip. The length of each clip is limited to a maximum of eight seconds to ensure rapid filming. Users have the option of adding a caption before pressing the “post” button to share it with their network; this does not send a direct message to the person who first shared it with you.

After publishing the video, you can determine whether a system-generated prompt or a friend’s prompt caused you to film the video.

Nocam will deliver challenges at least once daily, similar to BeReal, but you can also get challenges from pals at any time. Although the software lets you turn the camera, it doesn’t simultaneously record from both cameras as BeReal does.

The software still has a very BeReal-like appearance and feel, and it even provides a calendar of your Nocam moments for you to browse.

That might be a hint that sharing arbitrary photographs of daily life has run its course. A comparable audience may be drawn to BeReal by Nocam’s unique selling point, which focuses on video challenges while providing them with something to accomplish.

The app has been actively promoting itself on Instagram and TikTok, where it hopes to draw in a younger audience. Although it was designed with Gen Z college students in mind, the game’s silly challenges seem to have drawn a slightly younger high school audience, where users may want to connect with friends but are frequently separated from them in the real world because they are in college.