Gadgetory

zoe has always been one of the better reasons to take a lot of photos with an HTC smartphone even if you don't dig the company's unique approach to mobile photography that's because with Zoe's video highlights function you could always mix down those mediocre stills and videos into a short peppy highlight reel made almost automatically which gave the whole thing new life now HTC is taking Zoe to the next level opening it up for download to non HTC devices and building it into its own social network i'm michael fisher with pocket now here with your first look at the new zoe the first thing you'll notice that's different about the new zoe is that it's a standalone app accessible on many devices running android for dot 4 and above it sense 6 and above if it's an HTC phone it's technically pre-release not yet feature complete with version 1 point 0 plan for the fall users can send feedback to beta at Zoe calm through a feedback hub within the app jumping on the Zoe for the first time takes you to your own Zoe feed and here's where the apps new incarnation stands out just like a stream of posts on Twitter or Facebook or more appropriately vine or Instagram you immediately see Zoe's from friends highlight reels of selected pictures and videos augmented with music and automatically cut together by HTC software if you don't have any friends the discover tab makes it easy to find something posting your own Zoe is much the same as it has been in the past select what content you want included both photos and videos then choose what theme music you're looking for the Zoe comes with some and you can also use locally stored music but be mindful of copyright concerns and choose what style you want the zoe edited in you do have the option for more granular control as in cutting music to length and choosing your start and end clips but we find the software is surprisingly intelligent in this regard leaving it to its own devices usually results in a nice concoction when you're down editing you can keep it private or send it out to the masses for the kind of communal remix ngui was built for you can recut zoe's from other people friends or just randos who've left there's always open to public editing in our short time with the app we're mainly using this feature to Zoe bomb our friends but HTC envisions a world where many people attending the same event say a concert or a party could cooperatively assemble a video showing multiple perspectives of the same thing there's a good mix of new and old in the Zoe beta and maybe its most exciting aspect is that it marks a transition of sorts for HTC formerly just a hardware manufacturer that dabbles in software now a company looking toward the future of software and services to us the new Zoe looks like a promising step in that direction and if you have a newer Android phone you can chime in yourself Zoe is available for download in the google play store right now for more on HTC see our reviews and related content and be sure to subscribe to pocket now if you did enjoy this video until next time this has been Michael Fisher it captain two phones on Twitter thanks for watching and we'll see you next time