A new social media app is on the way called Trio. It is an app that allows users to take different forms of media and create ‘mashups’ that they can show their friends. Because other sources of media can be used, users do not have to solely use what is theirs. The Express had an opportunity to interview co-creator Misha Leybovich, and this is what he had to say:

Q: Were you always interested in technology?

A: “No, my career goal through college was really to be an astronaut. After college I travelled to around 70 countries, and during that time I collected a lot of media. I was always looking for interesting ways to tell stories with technology, but I thought things like photo albums and the like were a bit boring and this kind of lead to some concepts and eventually my company.” 

Q: What is Trio about?

A: “You see, [Trio] now is really not necessarily about the things you are doing, it’s more about taking things everyone is doing and remixing them into something you’ve created. When I stopped travelling, it kind of occurred to me that most people aren’t able to go on awesome vacations all the time, and that’s OK, but they still need ways to express themselves and create interesting media without actually having to be doing amazing things themselves.” 

Q: What makes Trio different from other social media apps?

A: “I think there are really two different types of social media: look how awesome my life is, and look at how clever I am. I think the first one is very well covered right now; there’s a lot of apps out there that let you do that already. I think people are getting a little tired of having to do interesting things, or pretending to do interesting things in order for it to be relevant. We wanted to give people a way to take the world of popular media and put it at your fingertips, that way you don’t have to be the one doing these amazing things in order for what you create to be considered interesting.”

Q: How do you think Trio will gain traction and grow its user base?

A: “I think we actually have greater potential than other apps to really have that growth through viral word of mouth. Because if you’re creating content and sharing it with your friends then they’re all going to know, but also all of the owners of the content you used will also become part of the process. If someone were to use a photo from your Instagram you get told about it and that makes you want to go check it out.”

Q: Why will content owners be okay with their content being used on Trio?

A: “When you tap on any piece of media that someone used, we’ll show you who made it, where it came from, and give you a link to that source. From day one we wanted to be really respectful to the original content owners and make sure that we’re driving people back to them.”

Q: Is Trio both Android and iOS?

A: “Right now it is just for iPhones, mainly because it’s just super expensive to develop for both at the same time. Particularly when you don’t know if it’s a hit yet, but once you know it’s really easy to duplicate on Android.”

Q: Did it seem like all the trends in social media pointed towards the coming of something like Trio?

A: “When you look at apps that already exist like Vine you can already see that people are making mashups on there. But really, Vine doesn’t have the tools to do that, so people are making this content externally and then reuploading it to Vine. When you look at that you can see that there is a  disconnect, because there is a demand for this type of content but it’s not being met because most people can’t even create it. And when you have that sort of imbalance, that is where an opportunity exists.”

—

The app is available on iTunes here.