Dubsmash was an American video sharing social media service application for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

and Android. Founded in Germany by Jonas Drüppel, Roland Grenke, and Daniel Taschik, the company relocated from Germany to

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

in 2016. On December 13, 2020,

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, imag ...

announced that it had acquired Dubsmash. In 2021, Reddit announced the integration of Dubsmash's tools and technology with Reddit's own video creation features. Reddit announced that the integration would result in the shutdown of the standalone Dubsmash app on February 22, 2022, after which all user videos and posts would be made inaccessible unless downloaded by the user prior. As of February 22, the dubsmash.com URL redirects to www.reddit.com and the app is no longer available through the

App Store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the c ...

devices, or the

Play Store Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating syst ...

on Android devices. Reddit has created the r/Dubsmash

subreddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...

for users to keep in touch. Using the application, users could choose an audio recording or soundbite from movies, shows, music, and internet trends and record a video of themselves 'dubbing' over that piece of audio.

Features

Dubsmash allowed users to videotape themselves while

lip sync Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , the same as the word ''sink'', short for lip synchronization) is a technical term for matching a speaking or singing person's lip movements with sung or spoken vocals. Audio for lip syncing is generated th ...

ing over audio clips and including sections of songs, movies, and famous quotes. Users could upload their own audio and add colour but not filters and text animation to their videos.

Development

The app's creators had previously made two other apps which were not as successful. Their last app prior to Dubsmash was called Starlize, which aimed to allow users to create music videos. Finding out that this app was too complex for users, the creators decided to move on to shorter length videos with an emphasis on ease of use, creating Dubsmash.

Reception

Within a week of the app's launch on November 19, 2014, it had reached the number one position in Germany, later reaching the same position in over 29 other countries. As of June 2015 it had been downloaded over 50 million times in 192 countries.

Data breach

On February 18, 2019, Dubsmash had a data breach; over 162 million accounts were compromised and its database was put for sale on the

Dream Market Dream Market was an online darknet market founded in late 2013. Dream Market operated on a hidden service of the Tor network, allowing online users to browse anonymously and securely while avoiding potential monitoring of traffic. The marketpl ...

. Passwords were stored as

PBKDF2 In cryptography, PBKDF1 and PBKDF2 (Password-Based Key Derivation Function 1 and 2) are key derivation functions with a sliding computational cost, used to reduce vulnerabilities of brute-force attacks. PBKDF2 is part of RSA Laboratories' Publ ...

Legacy

In 2015, Barbadian singer Rihanna had used Dubsmash to tease her song "

Bitch Better Have My Money "Bitch Better Have My Money" (otherwise known in clean and radio versions as "B**** Better Have My Money" or simply "Better Have My Money") is a song recorded by Barbadian singer Rihanna. It was written by Rihanna, Bibi Bourelly, producer Deput ...

". Later in that year, American singer

Selena Gomez Selena Marie Gomez ( ; born July 22, 1992) is an American singer, actress and producer. Gomez began her acting career on the children's television series ''Barney & Friends'' (2002–2004). As a teenager, she rose to prominence for starring a ...

used the app on

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jimmy Fallon that airs on NBC. The show premiered on February 17, 2014, and is produced by Broadway Video and Universal Television. It is the seventh incar ...

. Dubsmash was initially seen as a competitor during the development of

Instagram Stories Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

, according to software engineer Michael Sayman who had worked on the development of Stories. When Reddit acquired the app, it was reported that 30% of users were posting videos daily, and the app was receiving 1 billion video views per month. A year before it was acquired by Reddit, in December 2019, the app was downloaded 408,000 times, compared to TikTok's 4.5 million downloads in the same month. That number eventually dropped to 63,000 downloads per month, while TikTok's downloads rose to 4.6 million.

References

External links

*{{Official, http://www.dubsmash.com/ Android (operating system) software Internet properties established in 2014 Internet properties disestablished in 2022 IOS software Defunct social networking services