Onlookr – Reality Drama for the Text Generation

I’m not embarrassed to admit it. Reality TV series are my guilty pleasure. Before the girls were born I used to watch nearly all of them, Big Brother, TOWIE, Geordie Shore, and my personal favourite Made in Chelsea. There is something intensely satisfying about watching someone’s life unfold in front of you, seeing how the key characters interact and feeling like you are experiencing it almost live as you follow the journey with them. Whether it is my day job in Human Resources, or my love of people watching that makes me enjoy them so much is unclear, but I get well and truly sucked in, and love to find characters with whom I can relate (or hate!) accordingly!

Since the girls were born, I haven’t had as much time to sit and watch TV, as my life has changed somewhat in to a blur of breastfeeding and weaning! If I’m honest, I miss my weekly fix!!

When I heard about the new reality app Onlookr – I was keen to see whether this would fill the void!

Onlookr is a series of reality dramas for the the text message generation. Using the app, you follow the lives & events of  everyday people as a fly on the wall in their phone’s inbox. When following their story, you get to read every single message, witness every reply & discover the consequences of their secrets, lies or insecurities. Not only is this an insight into someone’s world, but it also happens live – you follow the main character’s inbox as it unfolds, with responses received in real time, as they happen.

The app is free,and currently the series are free of charge – some going forward may have a small download fee. You can opt to receive notifications and follow the series live, or log in and catch up at a time that works for you.

I put Onlookr to the test with their latest series following Lisa, a new mum to baby Leo, and her chats with partner Pete, friends Vicky and Katie and of course her Mum. As Mum to a 6 month old myself, I was hopeful I would relate to the character and was keen to read how she was getting on.

My Experience

I have been following Lisa’s inbox since Monday, and have already become a keen follower of her story!

Since Monday we have experienced scene setting (getting to know the characters), humour (the over sharing Mother!) and tension (with the inevitable arguments that arose as a result of an unsupportive partner!). I found myself relating to Lisa a lot, and almost willing her to stand up for herself more whilst I watched her partner’s mess up’s unfold.

Here’s my thoughts on the Onlookr app so far:

I followed the drama live – and set up the Onlookr app with push notifications so I was informed every time a message was sent or received via Lisa’s inbox. When the screen is refreshed, the latest messages are then ready to view. At first, I was unsure whether this would become annoying or whether the live notifications would be too much. In fact, I actually found the opposite, at times I found myself wishing there was another update, and wondering what was happening when it went quiet. I guess as its text message based, some things happen in person and are discussed later, so there is some periods of quiet. I think overall there was a good balance. None of the messages came through at anti social times, so I didn’t have to worry about being woken up in the middle of the night!  

You can also chose to follow in ‘catch up mode’. I am awake a lot during the night with my baby, and therefore if I am busy during the day, I can chose to catch up then instead. The history is not lost, as the inbox remains updated with all the conversations that have happened that day. That said, I couldn’t help having a little peak at my phone when the messages came through!

Did I miss the visual element? A little – I personally would love to see a few more photo messages being sent as part of the interaction as this would help form a picture of the characters in my mind. Some people may prefer not to have that and let their imagination do that for them, so this will come down to personal preference.

I can relate to Lisa the main characters and new mum in this story, having had similar concerns and experiences myself. However, I actually found Lisa to be a lot more accommodating of her partner than I would be in some scenarios! Maybe I am just more of a high maintenance partner, who knows? Her frustrations did inevitably boil over though, and I would have reacted in exactly the same way!

At the beginning it took a little while to warm up, but I think this is necessary in order to build the back story. I soon found myself actually willing Pete to mess up and for a big argument to unfold! I started to second guess what may happen, which I guess is a good thing as I clearly became a little sucked in! 🙂 The hook soon arrived, and I said to my partner “Ooooh Pete’s gunna be in trouble!!!”. He, however got a little confused and thought I was talking about our next door neighbour (shows how much he listens!!)

Will I continue to use Onlookr?

Yes I will. It is very early days for the app, but I think Outlookr could evolve to be something really great. The stories are a good balance between reality and drama, and the characters are definitely relatable.

What I would love to see is inbox’s of various people involved in the same story – for example – also seeing things from the other persons’ perspective, e.g. knowing something about Pete that he’s shared with a friend that Lisa is yet to find out about. That way we know something before she does, and are waiting for the drama to unfold.

I would also love to see stories become interlinked as people cross paths, a little “Love Actually” style, where people are somehow involved with each other in one way or another.

I think visuals are important, and therefore for me, a photo of the characters or even an intro video so we learn a bit more about them would be great. Some may prefer to use their imaginations to visualise the characters but for me personally, some initial scene setting would be helpful.

I will be following Onlookr over the next few months to see what new stories come through and to get my ‘reality fix’. The developers are very friendly and very open to feedback, so if you try that app and have suggestions, I’m pretty confident they would LOVE to hear them!

You can learn more about Onlookr and download the app (available for Apple or android) here:

*This is a sponsored post however all thoughts and opinions are my own.*