5by – Review

Its been some time since StumbleUpon’s acquisition of 5by, and now we finally have a chance to road test the new Android app. 5by’s aim is to provide you the user with custom-tailored videos that can reflect your moods, ambiance and situation. This concept may sound familiar as this is what StumbleUpon already does, in other words, 5by is the video equivalent of StumbleUpon.

5by pulls videos from different sources, but will mainly focus on Youtube. This means you have access to one of the largest video databases online ever, tie that into an intuitive and good looking interface and you have the beginnings of a great app.

When you first open 5by, it will get a bit personal, asking for a few details about yourself, like, your current mood, what your friends think about you, what you’re into, etc. This helps the app generate a playlist of videos for any mood or situation you may find yourself in.

The interface has a video background, which I found quite soothing. Swiping to the right will open the side menu. One feature I loved was that after telling the app what you’re interested in, 5by will then ask how much idle time you have on your hand. Simply slide your finger over the time dial around the play button to set a desired number of minutes, then hit Play, sit back, relax and watch your own personalized video stream. This is great as it means if you’ve got 5 mins of lunch left, you can just sit back for 5 and let 5by play you videos.

The playback screen is pretty decent, and shows all the basic information duration of current video, its source, as well as buttons to toggle HD format, rate the video, Like and post it on Facebook. You have to use this app in order to really get it. I found it great and easy to use, whilst also really falling in love with youtube again.

Download 5by below: