LinkNYC’s Shoutable App: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

UPDATE August 14, 2019: Well, that didn’t last long. Intersection appears to have discontinued the Shoutable app after just 5 months. Does anyone reading this page know why? Please let me know by email or in the comments of this page if you have any knowledge of the matter.

UPDATE April 9, 2019. I will leave my original story here, but with this updated observation: Most if not all of the 5-star ratings and reviews of the Shoutable app seem to come from the product’s software developers and Intersection’s public relations posse. Take the reviews for what you will. Hey, they almost fooled me.

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My first thought upon seeing the Shoutable app, an iOS-only product that lets you post content from your mobile device to LinkNYC’s 55″-high advertising panels, was simple: “What could possibly go wrong?” Post anything you want from your phone to LinkNYC’s screens? I’m there, just let me get my demented Mr. Softee artwork and some righteously loud ice cream truck music ready.

But a brief reading of how Shoutable appears to work dismissed such thoughts, at least for now, and even had me thinking that the folks at LinkNYC might actually have a hit on their hands. Shoutable appears to work like an e-postcard website, with a series of ready-made designs to choose from and a limited amount of space to enter your name and/or someone else’s, as seen in the photo above. You choose a design, enter some text, and boom, you’re a rock start for all of 60 seconds. Each messages costs you $4.95, and your first one is free. You can also schedule the screens to activate your messages at a future time. Having not used the app I cannot say whether the future-posting feature allows you to post messages to multiple LinkNYC screens all at the same time, nor it is clear whether both or just one of the advertising screens on the kiosk displays your content.

I have no doubt that someone will find a way to stuff obscenities into these fields, however crafty they need to be with obfuscated spelling. D0ucheb@g, anyone? I also imagine someone out there determined enough to hack the app and replace the artwork with their own.

But at $4.95 a pop that kind of thing probably will not happen too often. Then again, as the Summer of Softee demonstrated, it would not have to happen often for social media to make a single occurrence of “455h34d + d0uch3n0zzl3 4-EVER!” go viral. (Thanks to the L33T Converter for that translation.)

The concept is not new — think of those tiresome “happy birthday” messages shown on Jumbotrons at baseball stadiums —  but this brings something new to that tired idea. The reviews look positive, though it does not look like usage has caught on yet.

You will not see me relishing 60 seconds of pay-to-play screen time. But I see the appeal, especially among tourists and the wealthy. It’s also good to see that LinkNYC has finally introduced a feature where user accountability should help curtail abuse. Until now the thinking ingrained into providing the amenities offered by LinkNYC is that they had to be free. Now, along with the advertisements, Shoutable gives LinkNYC a fresh revenue stream. It remains to be seen how lucrative Shoutable proves to be, and what vulnerabilities it might possess.