The X Factor iPad app disappointed me at first. Upon opening, it thought I lived on the East Coast, popping up a countdown for Thursday night’s show while I watched Wednesday’s show live on TV (I live in Seattle). But then I saw the “synchronize” button at the bottom of the app. I touched, and after a few moments of listening to my TV, it transformed the app into a synched second-screen experience.
The first thing I noticed was the “coming soon” label on the Fan Feed — “connect with other X Factor fans” — which is a staple of any second-screen app. As I lamented the temporary omission, the app suddenly popped up the singers who just took the stage, and I realized that it was truly synchronized with the broadcast.
In the “latest” column, the app popped up notable quotes, lyrics, tweets, factoids, polls, hometown maps and even a “like” button that lets you like the singer’s Facebook page or follow a Twitter account straight from the app. It also prompted me to buy — via iTunes — the original versions of the song.
At the end of an act, I could vote with the “Verizon Fifth Judge” with my impressions, which you I could share to Facebook. It wasn’t clear how other people voted, which was a bit of a miss. But I loved the fact it popped up immediately after the song concluded.
When the show went to breaks (it popped up the message, “back in a bit!”) I expected it would continue the synched experience with the ads, but instead, it offered a video replay of the previous contestant’s song. Super cool, but oddly, I was more interested in the ad about the new Sony camera — my geek is showing — and I would have loved a breakdown of the device’s capabilities.
As the broadcast concluded and the show recapped the acts of the night, I was waiting for app’s grand finale. As the X Factor host (the weak link in the show) urged people to vote, I expected a vote button to appear — after all, I had already authenticated through Facebook on the app. But instead, it urged me to visit TheXFactorUSA.com to vote. Again, another miss, since viewers can vote via Facebook or Twitter (by DM’ing @theXFactorUSA), which could be integrated into the app.
But in the end, I realized with a few additions, this is an app I would make a point of launching during the show. An “appointment viewing” app, which by the way, is powered by TVPlus. We’re finally getting close to the promise of social TV: it offered enough original, synchronized content — that if it added community to the equation (preferably powered by Twitter and Facebook) — it would truly enhance the broadcast.
