The BETA version of the Degrassi Chat app was made available for download today through iTunes.  Unlike the Degrassi game, this app is completely free.  The purpose of the app is to provide a central location to keep up with and communicate about Degrassi through social media (primarily twitter). You don’t NEED a twitter account to access the app, but you do need one if you want to actually tweet from the app.  As soon as the Stohn posted about the app this morning I downloaded it, and below are my thoughts:

Getting Started

There are 5 different sections to the app:  Class, Gossip, Check In, Studio and More.

CLASS is a feed that contains all of the tweets from the character twitters:

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GOSSIP is a twitter feed of all public tweets that contain the hashtag #Degrassi

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CHECK IN is similar to the “check in” feature used on GetGlue, which allows you to tell people that you are watching an episode.  You can post a status update that will appear on twitter and/or facebook.

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STUDIO is a twitter feed with tweets from the Degrassi cast

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MORE gives you access to the Episode guide, account info and more (duh)

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REVIEW

When it comes to the Degrassi Chat app, I enjoy its simplicity.  You can see tweets from the cast and the characters in one place.  You can also tweet directly from the app by going to the GOSSIP section and clicking the compose tweet button in the top right hand corner:

Each new tweet you compose contains the #Degrassi hashtag by default, and you can even add pictures like any other twitter application.  By clicking on any tweet from the cast, characters or fans within the app you can reply or retweet them (both the newer and original RT options are available):

The STUDIO section not only contains tweets from the cast, but one of the sneaky brilliant features is that it also contains posts from the official Degrassi tumblr account.  I barely use tumblr anymore, so this is an excellent feature to help me keep up with their page without having to remember to visit tumblr:

When you click over to MORE there’s an option to view the episode guide, which currently only has descriptions for the Showdown episodes:

I’m hoping this is only because this is the beta version, but I know I want more out of this section.  It might be a long shot, but I’m hoping the full version of this app will give us the option to access and see all 12 seasons worth of episode descriptions here…or at the very least, have descriptions from Season 7 or 8 forward (since TeenNick tends to not really air anything before that anymore).  This would also concur with the CHECK IN option.  TeenNick does air a couple of episodes from Season 7 through 10 every weeknight.  A few weeks ago they also had a Boiling Point marathon…I know I would check in while watching old episodes if the option was available.

The only technical issue I had with the app occurred when I first opened it. The CLASS and STUDIO feeds didn’t want to appear at first, and I got this screen that would just hang there:

I tried it again and also got another message (which I forgot to screencap) which said I had reached my hourly twitter limit.  I know very little about twitter API, so hopefully it’s not a glitch that will hinder “power users” from tweeting and refreshing within the app.  I completely closed out the app and restarted it a few minutes later, and everything has worked fine since.

Now when it comes to accounts, you can have the app connect to your twitter, facebook or MuchCloser account:

By linking your MuchCloser account to the app you can earn points and badges, though honestly I’m not sure how the points/badge system applies specifically (I mean I’m assuming you get points for checking in on nights where there’s a new episode, but do you also get points for every tweet you send?).

The Degrassi Game that was released last year was fun to play through, but looking back there wasn’t as much replay value as there should’ve been.  I feel that’s partly because you had all of this awesome behind-the-scenes stuff (pics and video) that could be unlocked, but fans would unlock it and immediately post it on tumblr, defeating the purpose of the rest of us playing through each episode more than two or three times.

The Degrassi Chat App is a completely different animal.  I consider it a common sense app:  If you have the ability to get it (I *think* it’s only available for iPhone/ipod/ipad at the moment, please correct me if I’m wrong), you should download it.  Epitome’s created something that actually helps keep track of Degrassi-related things, as opposed to being just another Degrassi-related thing that *we* have to keep track of.  I know for me tweets from the cast and the character twitters tend to get lost (and sometimes straight up buried) in my feed, because I follow non-Degrassi people and some of the other Degrassi fans I follow insist on tweeting nonstop every single day.  It’s almost a pain to get to the twitter lists I’ve set up for Degrassi people on my computer and phone; the app lets me see them without having to cut through the crap.

I feel the app’s value remains pretty steady while the show is on hiatus;  you can still keep up with the cast and characters on twitter, but there isn’t much reason to care about people randomly babbling in the #Degrassi GOSSIP feed about Drake, or how much they’re in love with Luke, or how the older seasons of the show were better.  And using the app’s check-in feature the way its been designed is almost useless since the networks tend to not replay the newest episodes that much (You can always manually tweet that you’re watching a certain episode, but it’s not as fun as being able to choose from a list).

The app’s value is maximized when we’re in the midst of a block of episodes in general, and of course on the nights when there’s a new episode.  I can only imagine how monstrous this would’ve been had they been able to release it just in time for Showdown.  The GOSSIP feed becomes a source of entertainment as people livetweet their unfiltered reactions during the episodes, and I’ll be one of those weirdos when Degrassi returns starting Friday, October 12th.

The full Degrassi Chat App should be released before then.

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