Interactive and playable ads for apps

Voxel is a new platform that enables marketers to offer a working trial of their app, streamed live in the App Store or Google Play.

Static screenshots and even animated ads can only go so far to give users a taste of what an app is really like to use before they pay to download it. Voxel is a new platform that enables marketers to offer a working trial of their app, streamed live in the App Store or Google Play.

The startup, whose staff includes former Twitter engineer Russ d’Sa, aims to make apps available for users to try without having to install anything on their phone or mobile device. According to d’Sa, the virtual app is a video stream of the app running on a server elsewhere that can be controlled by the user. Their actions are recorded, relayed to the server and then back to the end user’s device in speeds quick enough to mimic how the app would appear if it was downloaded natively. Users are given around 30 seconds to try the app before being asked if they want to download it. The video below offers some examples of how the Voxel ads look:

Rather than trying to encourage consumers to pay for an app before they’ve tried it, Voxel turns the app itself into the ad. Currently available for both iOS and Android devices, the system gives consumers a more true-to-life experience of apps, offering greater incentive to download the full versions. Are there ways to use similar technology to make ads of any kind more interactive?

Spotted by Murray Orange, written by Springwise