How to Make a Self Destructing Video
Have you ever wanted to make a video
for someone, but didn't want it living forever in YouTube? Now there
is a free service that allows anyone to create a video right from
their webcam, privately send it to anyone in the world, and then have
the video self destruct after a set number of views or set number of
days. The service is called mailVU.com, and here's how it works.
Open any browser (Firefox, Chrome, IE,
Safari, etc.) and go to http://mailVU.com.
You will be prompted to allow access to your webcam. Select
Allow.
You can now see yourself in the window under Live Camera. If you don't see yourself click on the drop
down list of cameras and select the one that works for you. On the
Mac it is typically called USB Webcam. Note that until you record a
message the deletion option is grayed out at the bottom of the
screen.
Click
the red Record
button above your image to start the recording session. After
you click it the button will change to Stop and a notification will
appear that recording is in process. When
done click the red Stop
button.
When the recording is done the
information at the bottom of the screen is now available to click.
To view your message before sending
it simply click the green Play
button above your image. Your recording will now play in the same window, and the Play button changes to a Pause button.
Note that you can view the frames per second (fps) rating on your webcam when you play back your video. If you want to re-record over your
message, click the red Record button again to overwrite it.
When you are happy with your recording decide if you want to use an
auto deletion function at the bottom.
The default deletion time frame is 30
days, but you can change it to anything between 1 and 365 days. And
you could also specify the video to be deleted after a certain number
of views, even 1 view. If both are checked then whichever event
happens first will destruct the video mail.
You can now click Send this as a
Video Mail and you will have the following screen to populate:
Fill in the email address fields, and
add a brief text message if you like. You can copy yourself on the
video mail if you click the box at the bottom. When
done click Send Email. Congratulations! You have now
sent a self destructing video mail!
The user will receive an email which is
less than 25kb in size that includes a picture of you linking to your
video message. Until the point where the video self destructs they
can click on your picture and they will be able to hear and see you.
Once the self destruct requirement is met the user will receive the
following message if they try to play the video:
By using mailVU.com anyone can quickly
and easily send private video messages to anyone in the world. You
will enjoy peace of mind knowing that your video will not live
forever, but will be deleted within a set period of time. Try it
today for free!