Exclusive: Introducing WattsApp, the new app from Reggie Watts
It’s either the best time in the world to launch an app, or almost the worst, but Reggie Watts has to be hoping it’s the former. The comedian, musician, and co-host of The Late Late Show With James Corden has just launched WattsApp, a techno-savvy look into his life, work, and techno junk drawer.
As Watts told The A.V. Club, he is launching the app because he “wanted to have control over the look and the feel of the media that [he creates], and to create [his] own multi-media channel without having to use other platforms that make tons of money off data collection.” Watts shares that the app will host content exclusively before he posts it on other channels, and that he has some cool ideas planned, including using the app’s livestreaming capabilities. “I want to try different ways of presenting information, whether it’s locked to a specific geolocation within a radius [or] a late night radio show,” said Watts, who then added that the app will be made of “pretty much whatever I want to do, whenever I want to do it.” There’s no schedule for when things will appear, but he figures that “if people have cleared the app for notifications, they’ll know when things are happening.”
Part of the app is also devoted to giving Watts a place to sell his unwanted or outdated tech gear. Currently, you can score an Apple Watch for a song, or an iPhone XL Max. Watts says the sales corner emerged from his fixation with new technology. As he described,
“I buy so much, constantly. I’m always like, ‘Look at these new headphones, I gotta try these out. I have a Nintendo Switch, but look at the Nintendo Switch Lite. I’ve gotta try that. Look at this computer! Oh, a new cell phone!’ I’m always buying the newest technology. So I get this shit, and I play with it… I have piles of technology that I barely use, and it’s a lot of shit. It piles up, and I want to get rid of it. Sometimes I give it away to friends, and then other times I’ll just sell it for a really super reasonable price, because I just want to get rid of it and stop the clutter, because the clutter is insane. It’s just for me. It’s to give me some sanity.”
The timing couldn’t be better for the WattsApp launch, as Watts is currently sheltering at home like much of America, with The Late Late Show temporarily shuttered due to COVID-19 concerns. That could change this week, though, with Watts telling The A.V. Club he thinks that the show will try and put together a streamable quarantined version of the show fairly soon: “We’re going to shoot for me being at home with my equipment, and then James doing his thing and throwing to music, and I play him on and off out of commercial break.” Watts says he embraces the challenge the Stay At Home mandates have presented, saying he loves to problem solve, especially if it means making sure people working on The Late Late Show can stay working. Says Watts, “Now is the time to keep going.”