New Delhi: At a time when the whole country is abuzz with news and gossip about the Delhi assembly elections, wouldn’t it be cool for any citizen to talk to the two main CM candidates, Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi? The newly launched Frankly.me allows people to do exactly that. The app tries to diminish the gap between common people and celebrities by bringing well-known people on its platform and allowing users to ask questions.
When it comes to connecting to the followers, most celebrities, actors, and politicians have taken the stage to social media, but it becomes a moot point when the conversation is one-sided as the people don’t get a chance to ask questions or respond directly to the person. This is the problem that Frankly is trying to solve. A user can ask a question to any of the personalities listed on the app. The selected question then gets answered by the respective person, say a politician, actor, or author.
Another difference between something like Twitter and Frankly is that the answers on this app have to be in video format. This means you know that your question is getting answered by your idol and not by a person employed to write emails. For example, a tweet by Salman Khan may not actually be written by the actor. But on Frankly.me, the interaction becomes more personal as the celebrity in question has to answer with a selfie video. Interestingly, the selection of a question to be answered is ‘diplomatic’. Other users can up vote a question. Thus the most up voted, or most asked questions, are usually answered by celebrities.
Frankly.me sports a user-friendly UI. You can discover celebrities using Frankly in ‘Discover’ tab and select the ones you want to follow. The chosen ones will then be shown in the ‘Feeds’ tab. Each profile has an ‘Ask’ button next to its name.
Launched in December, 2014 Frankly.me has a current user base of about 50,000. Moreover it has roped in over 213 famous personalities, including politicians Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi, and Ajay Maken. Also singers/musicians as Mahalaxmi Iyer, Tochi Raina, and Shafqat Amanat Ali are there to answer routine or difficult questions. The app has been updating the list continuously, some recent addition can very well be called inspirational to youth. Frankly.me has brought in poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar, author Sandeep Unnithan, young wrestler Sangram Singh, and Snapdeal co-founder Kunal Bahl.