Selfie videos will never be the same again

Dubsmash is a quirky, original, and unique way to communicate with your friends by sending them dubbed videos of yourself.

Pick your soundtrack

The concept of Dubsmash is a simple one: pick a short soundbite, record of a video of yourself doing whatever you feel like (the app says it’s for lip syncing but there’s no reason you need to stick to that), and click finish to put the two together. Then, you can send the video to your friends via WhatsApp, SMS, or Facebook Messenger (the only current sharing options), or save it in your gallery for future use. If you don’t like the final product you can always make some tweaks.

But it’s not just normal songs that you can use to dub your video, there are all manner of clips from movies, TV shows, chat show interviews, and other random sounds. The categorization of the tracks is slightly unusual but does help to create super funny videos, with categories including ‘Chick Flicks’, ‘Action Heroes’, ‘Hangover’, ‘Swag’, and ‘Pick Up Lines’.

A touch glitchy

Creating a dubbed video is an easy, two step process

: pick song, record video, and you’re done. However, it’s not always a smooth process and can be a bit glitchy. The first time I tried Dubsmash, the app didn’t pick up the front-facing camera and so wouldn’t let me record a video. A quick uninstall and reinstall solved the problem, but it wasn’t the best start for the app. And there were several occasions when it wouldn’t make the final, dubbed video and I had to exit the app and restart the process.

The user interface is also pretty basic; it’s definitely a no-frills experience.

A fun, novelty app

Video messaging is a hot trend at the moment and Dubsmash has tapped into this market perfectly with it’s unique take on the genre. The app can produce hilarious results and gets points for being original and innovative. However, it still seems like a work in progress, as there are usability issues to iron out and it is limited by only being able to share via SMS, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. What about Twitter, or Viber, or LINE, or the plethora of other messaging apps out there? Dubsmash does also run the risk of being a short lived novelty app, rather than an app with a long shelf life.

Overall, Dubsmash manages to be fun and fresh by adding something new to the video messaging formula – but only time will tell if it is here to stay.