TinyChat launches new features to enrich its chat environment

Jul 31, 2009 13:34 GMT  ·  By

In an effort to stay connected with its users' needs, TinyChat, the online, web-broadcasting chat room platform, has launched a set of new and exciting features. As a spearhead to its new user options, the Twitter social stream is going to rock many rooms in the near future.

This unique feature was first introduced on The Mashable Lounge, a partnership between TinyChat and Mashable, to build a chat room with social-streaming capabilities for the Mashable website. Chat users will be able to broadcast their chats on Twitter with a simple push of a button. Actually, this is very similar to what UStream, Justin.TV and TwitCam have already done lately with their services.

Another social-streaming feature is the possibility to allow users to login only if they have authenticated themselves via Twitter. Only after signing in via Twitter, a user will be able to enter and start chatting with the people inside. This way, admins can verify TinyChat users, just by visiting their Twitter pages.

Other moderating options have been introduced too. The room admin can manually select which users can broadcast or not on the main chat. This is very useful when organizing online conferences, debates or topic discussions. Admins can also delegate their moderating rights to another user.

Trying to enhance technical and signal quality, TinyChat has introduced new broadcasting technologies that have improved up to four times the feeds on free and pro chat rooms. A speak button has also been added for users that don't own a set of headphones, and, if they want to speak, they can simply hit the button and then turn it off when they are done. This way, a lot of the echo is reduced.

Users can also send private messages to one another, a feature that was mysteriously missing in the first place.

Future plans revolve around a WordPress plugin, restyling the video-broadcasting screen, adding a swear filter, adding chat hashtags, and other social-network streams.