Kwese quietly uploaded the Kwese Pulse app onto the Google Play Store back in March and it slipped under our radar. It seems that Kwese was already taking advantage of their broadcasting licences. Now that we’ve taken note of this (thanks tipster!), let’s look at Kwese’s streaming app for mobile and see what’s on offer.
Getting Started…
To get started with the app, you’re met with a sign-in/register screen and your number will act as your user ID. Once you’ve signed in you’re taken to the homepage which has 3 menus:
- Featured
- Trending
- Live
The live section features live concerts, and real-time streams of content from other channels such as Liverpool TV, Cartoon Network and some news channels. Featured and Trending are really just lists of other types of content and there’s not much to describe there. You can check out some of the pictures of the UI you’ll interact with inside the app:
You can check out the video below if you want to see the UI and what’s on offer in the Kwese Pulse app.
Subscriptions…
The subscriptions for Kwese Pulse are in 4 Tiers:
| Duration | Cost |
|---|---|
| 1 Day | US$0.60 |
| 3 Days | US$0.99 |
| 7 Days | US$1.99 |
| 1 Month | US$3.99 |
The subscriptions are pretty cheap but in Zim, the only thing that has been really affecting adoption of VoD and other streaming services is the fact that data is quite expensive and with data out of reach for many it will be hard to see people subscribe to Kwese Pulse.
There’s also some free content on offer which is a bonus! Not that the content is amazing but I am not going to complain about free stuff…
I do think the one-day subscription will appeal to many in certain specific situations. For example, if something is going to be broadcasted on ZBC at 4 AM in the morning but you don’t have access to ZBC, Kwese Pulse will save you and you can freely watch another military takeover from your smartphone. Yes ZBC is available on Kwese Pulse.
In line with the previous example, the NBA right now is in the Playoff phase and if you want to stream a particular match you can just get a one-day subscription and you watch your match. Simple.
You can pay in the app using EcoCash but I’m not sure which other payment methods are accepted because when I want to pay the app didn’t really show me anything except a white screen. We’ll talk about the other multiple bugs that are in this app later
Also note this app doesn’t have all the channels you get on Kwese’s full bouquet but just a selection of content that has Kwese has rights to.
Bugs and permissions…
The app is great but right now it’s not the most responsive application on the Playstore. Maybe this is why Kwese is yet to make too much noise about it.
In the clip below you can see one program refuse to play, whilst the next plays without any blips.
This unresponsiveness was also present in the apps subscription space when I tried to pay for one of the subscriptions. It just took me to a white screen and next thing I could play premium. I guess that white screen was confirmation enough…
These are minor irritations and they can be fixed with an update so it’s not much of big deal at this point.
Worth a look?
I can see the app being useful in a certain type of situation and for that, I think it’s worth downloading and taking a look. You can download the Kwese Pulse for Android here
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2 comments
After reading this article i installed the app and iv to say was very disappointed after creating an account its been a pain in the ass trying to login in fact i haven’t logged in yet just an error saying “oops wasn’t expecting this error try again”
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