DSCO is the new video app from the makers of the incredibly popular VSCO photo-editing app. For many, that alone will make this app worth a try. But after putting in some time with it, it might not have the kind of mass adoption that VSCO has had.
DSCO sounds easy to use at first. In essence, you’re recording Vine-like 2.5 second videos to share with the world. In theory, this video will become a gif. Some trendy filters are an option, as well as the instant social network sharing you’d expect from other apps.
After that, you can share the video, or upload it to DSCO (which requires yet another sign-up process). What’s confusing about the app is that although it touts it as some kind of .gif machine, the upload process to DSCO is a bit convoluted. If you head to the actual site, the file seems to be in a proprietary format, and you cannot simply right-click to save it as a .gif.
Instead, you need to log in, and download the “VSCO Grid” app to access the community features. What once started as a “simple” prospect turns into a multi-headed hydra of confusion and bloat. For the basic option to add a .gif to your camera roll it succeeds, but other than that, there’s no real reason to use or participate in the rest of what DSCO has to offer.
These “quick video” apps really need to improve, as they are too tethered to the base functionality of iOS devices to soar. For the most part you’re just creating a “short video” with style, and the result is saved to your device anyway—here, there’s no option to avoid the .mov creation that just takes up space on my device, when all I want is the .gif.
While I see the allure of a successful social app like Vine, the rest are kind of just there with not a lot to stand out from the crowd. Rather than being a companion app to something like Vine in the same way that VSCO is to Instagram, DSCO feels like its trying to push users into utilizing the small social network that VSCO has built—and without a way to export to .gif, it’s not always practical or intuitive.
DSCO is an iOS app that can be downloaded for free in the iTunes App Store.