Fabric: A new messaging platform in augmented reality
On Fabric, you can discover and interact with others who are within a local radius to connect, share a moment or lend a hand.
By STEVE LINDESarah Kass(photo credit: TZIPORA LIFSHITZ)Sarah Kass is the founder and co-CEO of Fabric – a new, instant public messaging platform in augmented reality (AR). Kass, a Yale graduate and Rhodes Scholar who has lived in Jerusalem since 2006, is the mother of two daughters aged 21 and 18.She says she founded Fabric – ironically before the onset of the coronavirus – “to deploy the coolest technology to renew our oldest resource – our connection to one another – so that together we can build a world where everyone belongs.”On Fabric, you can discover and interact with others who are within a local radius to connect, share a moment or lend a hand.Fabric, she says, began with an observation: “Around the world, we live in paradoxical times:1. We are more connected than ever before digitally, and yet more disconnected than ever before socially.2. We have access to more resources than ever before; and yet everywhere the gaps between rich and poor get wider.3. We have unprecedented power literally at our fingertips, and yet few people feel they can make a difference.”Kass asked herself, “What if AR could bring people closer to one another?” She and her co-founder Saul Garlick partnered with a leader in AR in Israel, and together created what she calls “human-centered AR.”AdvertisementShe explains: “Our proprietary Social AR is tethered to the physical location of the user, and other people nearby. Rather than decorating faces and physical surfaces with digital signage, Fabric’s technology brings people closer to one another. My thoughts can appear in your living room. Your thoughts can come to me as I walk down the street. Our AR thought bubbles (which can contain video and photos) can be common content for anyone in proximity. And since the AR content you see is tied to physical proximity, AR comments can seamlessly become in-person conversations.”Fabric’s first customers are in the dating and peer-to-peer payment spheres. “With the first, you can look up and see the photos of nearby matches no matter where you are and tap to meet! In the second, you can see the profile picture of the person you need to pay hovering in AR, and tap to pay. Our tech will soon be part of the basic offering of big brands and popular apps, transforming the lonely digital experience into a physical social one.”Fabric offers its proprietary Social AR as an embeddable software development kit (SDK). “Any company that cares about connecting its customers can embed our technology into their apps and offer Social AR mode to transform their customers into local communities,” Kass says.What is her vision for Fabric? “Our vision is to be the Social AR infrastructure for business, unlocking virtuous circles of transactions and interactions. With Fabric, businesses can reach their customers where they are, and their local customers can find one another and connect. We are a new dimension for doing business that grows the social fabric in the digital age. ”Asked if she sees Fabric as part of the Start-Up Nation’s innovation, Kass says, “Fabric’s proprietary AR technology was built here in Israel. More than that, Fabric was nurtured in a place where the social fabric is strong. It is no accident that while the OECD ranks Israel high in income inequality – the gaps between rich and poor here are as wide as they are in the US – it also ranks Israel high in personal happiness. Israel has a thicker social fabric. There are some things money can buy; for everything else we have each other.”
