MovieQu, the Shazam for movie trailers, makes sure you never forget when your favorite film is coming out
That's where MovieQu comes in, an upcoming iPhone app that's basically like Shazam for movie trailers. You tap a button, your phone listens to the movie trailer playing in the background, and then you're presented with a tidy summary of the film and the option to save it to your queue.
The idea for MovieQu came to Rakesh Nigam after he caught the tail end of a trailer and didn't manage to catch the name of the film, which he later found out was "Argo."
"I caught about 15 or 20 seconds of the end of the trailer," Nigam told Business Insider. "I saw something in the trailer I liked but didn't know what it was or even who was acting in it, everything happened so fast. We thought that if we could fix that problem, people could start to remember the trailers they started to see."
With the goal of helping late-comers and forgetful moviegoers alike, Nigam teamed up with Alison Silver to create MovieQu, which is currently in beta and set to launch in the upcoming weeks.
After testing MovieQu for a few weeks, it quickly became clear that the true potential of the app is acting as an aid for the forgetful movie fan, both as an easy way to record what films you're into and as a tool for reminding you when it comes time to purchase tickets.
Steven TweedieTiming is really important for sound identification apps, and MovieQu thankfully keeps its listening button - shaped like a series of concentric chat bubbles - front and center so you can quickly find it and tap to begin the listening process.
Through my tests MovieQu took anywhere from a couple of seconds to, say, maybe 10 seconds to identify the movie trailer playing in front of me. Most of the time it only took two or three seconds. Once it discovers which film trailer is playing, MovieQu brings up the movie poster and release date info, and you can also tap the screen to read the film's synopsis and casting details, which is sourced directly from Rotten Tomatoes.
You can also re-watch the trailer right from within the app, and if you tap the bookmark button the details get saved to "My Qu," a collection of your saved trailers that you can scroll through carousel-style from left to right.
Steven Tweedie
The coolest feature of MovieQu, however, is what happens behind the scenes after you save a film to your queue. Since MovieQu plugs into your calendar app, the movie's release date gets added to your calendar, and the app will also send you a push notification on release day too.
Steven Tweedie
MovieQu also plugs into Facebook, which lets you share which films you're saving and see what movies your friends want to see, making it easy to plan movie nights without worrying about if your friends secretly feel like they're being dragged along.
As you continue to save movies to "My Qu," the app also fine-tunes its recommendation engine and will show you upcoming films you might like that you can reach by tapping on the "Recommended" tab. If you want to see if there are any nearby deals on movie tickets, MovieQu has also partnered with DealFlicks so you can start your search without leaving the app.
Steven Tweedie
At the end of the day, MovieQu is great if you have a history of loving movie trailers but a terrible track record for remembering them. MovieQu is set to launch in "the next couple of weeks," according to Nigam, but you can sign up to be notified when it releases by entering you email over at the official website.