There are plenty of ways to upload photos and other content from your phone to the Web. But the premise behind Jibe Mobile is simply to be able to use your phone to share social media already on the Web with your friends, whether they are online or out with their phones. The service is launching today in private beta. We have invites for the first 300 people to sign up here.
Jibe is a Website, a mobile app, and a Facebook app. It lets you import your Facebook friends as contacts, or invite your own. Once you download Jibe’s mobile app to any Java phone (including ones from Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson), you can text chat with any contact. I tested it on my Blackberry curve and it worked without a hitch.
In addition to the basic IM functionality, Jibe lets you send outs “shouts” (little emoticon-like avatars who say things like “What up Dude?”), share photos from Flickr, videos from YouTube, or stories from RSS news feeds. The shouts come out as both text messages and short audio messages through your phone’s speaker.
CEO and founder Amir Sarhangi says:
We are not a social network. We are really the glue in the middle.
Jibe wants to make it easy to socialize with friends around social media from your phone. For instance, you can browse channels of popular YouTube videos, Flickr photos, or top Yahoo News feeds, all from within the mobile app. You can also search for specific Flickr images or YouTube videos without leaving the app. Once you find something you want to share, you can forward it to a contact with a few clicks.
Jibe will soon add support for more social networks beyond Facebook, such as Bebo and MySpace. And will also support more social media services, such as PhotoBucket. What Jibe doesn’t let you do just yet is upload your own photos or videos from your mobile phone to your favorite social network or social media Website. Other than that, it is a solid app that is off to a good start.
The company was founded in December 2005, and raised $800,000 in angel money last December.