Not everyone can get the opportunity to watch a movie premier and interact with its stars. But a new app has been launched in India that can give somewhat similar experience. This is VMate, a Movie & Video platform by UCWeb ( Check out more apps by UCWeb). It provides HD-copyrighted movies at zero cost. Instead of watching the premier in a theatre, it promises to bring the latest movies to the smartphone. And it also gives opportunity to the users to chat with the star.
In the very beginning, VMate has won the exclusive rights for online launch of Bollywood movie Madaari (2016). That means, users of VMate can watch Madaari absolutely free, and legally. Madaari has been directed by Nishikanth Kamat and stars Irrfan, Jimmy Shergill, Vishesh Bansal, Tushar Dalvi, Nitish Pandey and Ayesha Raza. The movie won much appreciation from the fraternity and earned Rs. 30.60 crore at the domestic box office within the first week of its release.
Features of VMate include:
Free streaming of the available movie:
Vmate is a free app. As of now, no subscription is needed to watch the content on it. All users can stream and download the movies from it at no cost.
Different Qualities:
The apps gives users several quality options while streaming or downloading the movie. The video quality ranges from 1080P to 144P. Users on Wi-Fi can download high quality movie while users on mobile data can opt for lighter quality.
Download the available movie for offline viewing:
VMate allows users to download the movie for offline viewing. The download is fast and users can select the video quality they want while downloading. I tried downloading Madaari on my phone. And on the Wi-Fi connection, the whole movie took a little more than 5 minutes to download. Yes, even I was amazed at the speed! By default, the app downloaded 360p version that is 502.36 M in size.
Share the downloaded movie:
VMate also allows users to share the downloaded movie by offline modes like Bluetooth, ShareIt, Xender. No, you can't spread the free movie among your friends using services like WhatsApp. It is only available for offline sharing. Also, the movie can only be played on the VMate app. So if you share it with your friends, they too would need to install the VMate app to watch the movie. However, as they already have the movie shared by you, they won't need to spend data in downloading the movie.
I tried sharing the movie. Bluetooth transfer seemed too slow. Shareit transfer took about 8 minutes.
Chat with the stars:
One of the highlights of the VMate app is that it allows users to interact with the stars of the movie. You can also view other people's interaction with the stars. All these chats float on the screen but can be turned off.
Other Videos & Trailers:
In the video tab, several other smaller length videos are also available. These include songs, funny videos etc. The app also showcases trailers of upcoming movies. You can like or dislike them and share them with your friends.
Interface:The interface of the app is clean and simple. On the homescreen, three tabs are viewable. The first is the Premier HD tab from where you can watch the premiering movie. The second tab is Trailers and it showcases trailers. The third tab is videos and it carries other entertaining videos. There is a search bar on the top of the homescreen. On its right is the Download button that leads to the on-going downloads and downloaded media. More options are available on the Menu on the top left.
Vote:
The app also gives users a chance to vote for the next Premiere HD movie they want to see on VMate. The app gives some options and users can upvote the movie that they want to watch.
As of now, the content available on VMate is limited. But I hope soon we'll have lot more free content. The content on VMate is supported by advertisements. But like YouTube, users won't much mind ads like skippable videos for chance to watch and download latest movies free and legally. The app is still very new. But it definitely looks promising. And as it is by UCWeb, it is going to be supported well for future enhancements.
Download VMate from Google Play Also available from VMate Website