HQ, The live quiz that now sees up to 2 million players per game, introduces new social features, including sharing answers with friends.
The company has already tested this feature on a small group of users, but on Friday the feature will be deployed on all HQ users.
Here's how it works: Users can log their address book to HQ and add their friends. Once they have added friends, they can see which of their friends play the game by their side. Users can put their own avatar on the answer to a question to share their choice, which is visible to friends.
The idea is that response sharing mimics what many people do when playing HQ IRL, shouting responses to colleagues at the office or sharing with friends and family in a bar or at home .
"We understand the power of the crowd and play together," said HQ product manager James Ruben. "It does not necessarily exist everywhere, our goal is to transmit this power to people who may not be playing together at the office."
This follows HQ's introduction of "Friends on HQ" from April, which allows users to see friends play the same quiz and see their progress in the game. Sharing answers just takes a step further.
It is interesting to note that the sharing of answers will not be available for every Trivia HQ quiz. Instead, the feature will begin on Friday of this week, and will continue to be available on Friday's games.
"We understand that it's a change in the game," Ruben said. "Friday is an interesting time to experiment and try sharing answers because Fridays tend to be a little more social than other days."
Along with sharing answers, HQ also adds another social layer to the game with close friends. The feature will allow HQ players to see other people (not in their address book) who are in the same quiz and physically nearby, perhaps in the same office building or in the same building. bar or restaurant.
Finally, HQ facilitates the download of the address book and allows to connect with friends on the application.
HQ is an interesting company in that it takes a near-old-school approach to advertising / sponsorship. Unlike social networks like Facebook, which collect as much data as possible on users to sell ads against this data, HQ focuses more on getting as much as [49] TV advertising.
HQ does not have much information about users beyond their phone number, device type, user name, and other information from base usually gleaned from the application developers. With the introduction of Friends on HQ, the company gets a little more information about users. But this is not necessarily the reason for the update.
Instead, HQ wants to make these games as attractive as possible, and what's more engaging than competing or encouraging friends and family.
The company also takes a measured approach to advertising and sponsorship, working with partners that make sense for the HQ community, and making these sponsorships as native as possible.
For example, HQ recently organized a $ 250,000 game with Warner Brothers as a sponsor, plugging Ready Player One into graphics and even some of the questions. The company also offered Duane "The Rock" Johnson a $ 300,000 play as part of the actor's promotion of his film Rampage.
Sharing answers will be available for everyone on Friday, but easier download of the address book and close friends will soon be available for Android users.