Updated to version 1.2

Changes

  • Now supports Australia and New Zeeland TV Channels(*)

    (*) Until version 1.0 and under, it took long time to support a country, although “TV Frends” supported many TV channels in the country. We’ve changed our policy so that we can increase supported countries easily, although less channels (mainly “free to air” majour channels) per one country will be supported at the first (more will come later).

    (*) If you select a language which is not English or a public language of a certain country, the country won’t be displayed on the Country Selection Screen. The language selection screen is shown when you first boot “TV Friends.” You can also change the language from “Settings” menu.

For the information about hash tag, please refer FAQ page.

Maintenance

From 2014/06/11 13:00 (JST) for 4 hours, a maintenance will be held. Tnak you for your understanding.

Reason

  • Version Up

Version Up Info will be announced later.

Updated to version 1.0

Changes

  • Now supports UK TV Channels(*)
    (*) Currently, “TV Friends” supports 168 channelswhich is listed a major TV Guide web site  in UK. More to come later.

    (*) If you select “日本語 (Japanese)” on Language selection screen, “United Kingdom” won’t be listed when you select country. Please select “English” to go into UK TV channels’ chat rooms. (The language selection screen is shown when you first boot “TV Friends.” You can also change the language from “Settings” menu.)

    About Hash Tags for UK TV Stations
    On Twitter, in most cases, there is no hash tag difference between one area and others of a world wide TV Station. As a result, comments against two different TV programs are shown on the same time line.

    Example: “#AnimalPlanet”, “#Discovery”

    As “TV Friends” is an application to chat among people who watch the same TV program, it is not proper to mix up comments from two different TV programs even though the same TV Station broadcasts them.  Therefore, “TV Friends” imports and exports Twitter comments with hash tags that look like “#TV_Station_name #Area” or “TV_Station_nameArea”.

    Example: “#AnimalPlanet #UK” “#DiscoveryUK”

    This means TV Friends will show less comments in UK compared to in USA; however, the application will provide you more meaningful Twitter comments for UK people when they watch TV. You can automatically put the TV Station and the area tag using “TV Friends” when you post comments from “TV Friends.” If you find improper has tags, please report to the Forum.

Maintenance

From 2014/06/02 13:00 (JST) for 4 hours, a maintenance will be held. Tnak you for your understanding.

Reason
•Version Up

Version Up Info will be announced later.

2014/06/02 17:00(JST)
The maintenance needs 1 more hour.
Thanks for your patience.

2014/06/02 18:00(JST)
Still Waiting for Google Play’s synchronization.
The maintenance needs 1 more hour.
Thanks for your patience.

2014/06/02 19:00(JST)
The above issue has not been solved yet.
The maintenance needs 1 more hour.
Thanks for your patience.

2014/06/02 20:00(JST)
The maintenance has been finished.

Social TV Android Application, “TV Friends,” Now Supports USA TV Stations

On May 19th, LUXALA Inc. (LUXALA, Nagareyama City Chiba, Japan) updated an Android Application, “TV Friends,” to support US TV programs.

“TV Friends” is an application to chat with people who watch the same TV program. In each chat room, not only a normal chat comments, but also Twitter comments with a hash tag for the chat room will be displayed. In addition, some functions (voting, playing sound effects, and etc.) to enjoy “shared TV watching” are supported.

LUXALA hopes everyone enjoy a social TV experiences with “TV Friends.” Please gather in front of TV with your smart phone!

<App Name>
TV Friends

<Google Play URL>
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tvfriends

<Price>
Free

<Features>
Currently supported Countries/Regions – Japan – USA

Currently supported Languages – English – Japanese

Features – Chat rooms for TV channels.   Over 100 channels x 6 time zones are supported for US TV Stations.   Over 1000 channels are supported for Japanese TV Stations.

– Twitter comments with each TV Station hash tags will be displayed and can be posted.

– Avatars can be selected.

– Voting functions are available with preset buttons like CIRCLE, CROSS, and 1 to 8 NUMBERS.

– Sound Effects can be posted like CHEERING and APPLAUSING!

– You can choose avatar position from LEFT, CENTER, and RIGHT, so that in Sports program, 1 team fan cheers their team from LEFT, and other team fan do the same from RIGHT.

– You can post a chat room rule to a ticker comment!   e.g. “A” team fan stands LEFT, and “B” team fan stands RIGHT.

– If other channels in the same area became “hot channel,” a ticker comment will inform you so that you don’t miss the fan period.

Notice: A TV screen is not shown in the application.

<Difference from other Social TV Applications>
– Many applications are basically TV Guide + Twitter Viewer applications, where “TV Friends” is a live chat room with functions to enjoy shared TV watching. In most applications, what Twitter cannot do cannot be done as they are Twitter Viewer + alpha applications. “TV Friends” has its own chat servers and many things are quite possible. For example, current version has voting system and posting sound effect system that Twitter Viewers don’t have.

<Official Web Page>
www.tvfriendschat.com/en/

<Contact for this Press Release>
info@luxala.com

Updated to version 0.7

Changes

  • Now supports USA TV Channels(*)
    (*) Currently, “TV Friends” supports 100 channels by 6 time zones (i.e. there are 600 chat rooms) which is listed a major TV Guide web site. More to come later.

    (*) If you select “日本語 (Japanese)” on Language selection screen, “United States of America” won’t be listed when you select country. Please select “English” to go into USA TV channels’ chat rooms. (The language selection screen is shown when you first boot “TV Friends.” You can slso change the language from “Settings” menu.)

Maintenance

From 2014/05/19 13:00 (JST) for 4 hours, a maintenance will be held. Tnak you for your understanding.

Reason
•Version Up

Version Up Info will be announced later.

2014/05/19 15:00(JST)
This maintenance finished.

Updated to version 0.6

Changes

Twitter Functions
A video help explains the new Twitter functions in TV Friends.

  • On each TV Station’s chat room screen, Twitter comments with hash tags for the TV Station will be displayed in blue chat bubbles.
    TwitterComment
    * To avoid spam comments, cometns with “http://” or “https://” won’t be displayed. Retweet won’t be displayed by the same reason.
    * Twitter comments for CATV stations can not be read and written now. The function will be available later.
  • A function to post a same comment to Twitter when you post a chat comment to TV Friedns is added. This function is “Off” as default, and can be turned on by Settings menu. TwitterSettings
    If you turn on the function, Twitter logo in Chat Input Screen will be lit and shows that your comment will be posted to Twitter as well. If you turn off the function the logo will be darkened showing your comment won’t be posted to Twitter.
    TwitterOn TwitterOff
    * To avoid displaying doubled comments, your comment posted to Twitter won’t be displayed in TV Friends, and only your comment to TV Friends will be displayed. * Twitter has 140 letter limitation for a comment, but as shown below, TV Friedn’s limitation is 255 letters. If your comment exceeds 140 letters, your comment to Twitter will be abbriviated.

Others

  • New avatars are added.
    Male_front_6 Male_front_7 Female_front_6Female_front_7
    Male_side_6 Male_side_7 Female_side_6Female_side_7
    These avatars will be unlocked by posting a cheering TV Friends comment to Twitter.
  • When a comment is too long, the comment will be paged and displayed every 6 seconds page by page. By this function, a comment length limitation is changed from 90 Bytes to 255 letters.
  • A ticker comment length limitation is changed from 126 Bytes to 126 letters.
  • A name length limitation is changed from 30 Bytes to a certain width. By this change, the name length increased from 10 to 12 in double width letters (like Japanese), and decreased from 30 to 26 in single width letters (like English). If Twitter commenter’s name length is too long, the name will be abbriviated.
  • The End User License Agreement is updated. Even if you agreed with the previous version of EULA, you have to reagree with the new version.

Fixes

  • A problem that cancel sound is not played when certain Settings menus are canceled.