TinyChat.tv's interface will feel very familiar if you used the regular TinyChat before.

Room owners can customize the look and feel of their rooms and decide if they want to force users to sign in with their Twitter or Facebook accounts. One feature we really liked on TinyChat was that users could type a random URL (tinychat.com/12345) and the service would automatically create a room with this URL. This feature hasn't been enabled on TinyChat.tv yet, but TinyChat's co-founder Dan Blake tells us that it will come back soon.

For $9.95 per month, users can also buy a pro membership that allows them to set passwords for rooms and stream higher quality video.

For Developers: Free Streaming with TinyChat API

For developers, TinyChat now offers a comprehensive free application programming interface (API) that makes it easy for developers to create their own Ustream clones. Indeed, TinyChat.tv itself was built on top of this API. Earlier today, Dan Blake told us that TinyChat will not charge developers for bandwidth. Stickam currently charges $0.45 per gigabyte for its streamAPI white label service.

Overall, this is a nice upgrade to the regular TinyChat experience. The old TinyChat, where users don't need to sign up will continue to operate. The big development is the API, however, and we are looking forward to seeing what developers will do with it.

Flash-based P2P Video

For TinyChat, the ability to route these videos around its servers means reduced bandwidth costs. Once this feature becomes part of the default TinyChat setup, only calls with more than 2 participants will have to go through the company's servers and as TinyChat's founder Dan Blake told us earlier today, the experience of switching between the P2P chat and the server-based version should be completely seamless.

Unlike other P2P solutions, TinyChat is able to leverage a plugin that virtually all users already have on their machines and users don't have to download another plugin. All a user needs is a webcam and a microphone. Currently, when you are chatting on the P2P server, your privacy is also protected, as the service simply won't allow a third user to listen in or join the call.

One of the niftiest features in the new TinyChat is the implementation of a push to talk button. A typical video and audio chat with multiple users can often be ruined by echo from a user who doesn't use headphones. TinyChat now asks users if they have headphones when they sign in - if they don't, the application will automatically put them into the push to talk mode.

Room owners (that is, whoever starts a room) now also have greater control over who can be on cam. In addition, room owners can now also pass control of a room on to other users - a feature that is quite useful when you have to leave, but want the chat to continue.

Room starters can now also require users to sign in through Twitter. Whenever a user signs in through Twitter, an invitation to join the chat will be posted in that user's Twitter stream. In addition, room starters can now also force users to push all of their chat comments back to Twitter. This might be a somewhat controversial feature, as some may see this as spam.

Coming Soon: WordPress Plugin, New Video Screen, Custom Hashtags

In the next few days, the TinyChat team also plans to release a new WordPress plugin, a restyled video screen, and custom hashtags for rooms (right now, every tweet about a TinyChat room features the #tinychat hashtag).

TinyChat's founder Dan Blake tells us that the service is currently growing about 5% every day. Given that the service has been completely self-funded and is only relying on word-of-mouth marketing (largely through Twitter), this is quite an impressive feat.

One of the nicest things about Tinychat is how easy it is to use. Just head over to their site, click on create room, choose a username (no need to register), and allow Adobe Flash to access your webcam. You can also just use a microphone or join the old-school text chat. You also have the option to send a message to your Twitter followers if you want them to join you in the chat room. The free version of Tinychat will have very few privacy controls, though the room owner (generally the first person to enter a room), can ban users or mute them. The most complicated thing to figure out for new users is how to choose their webcam and to remember to click the "start broadcasting" button if they want to participate in the video chat.

Tinychat is also available as a Facebook application, which replicates most of the functionality of the regular web app, though with a different layout.

Up to 12 users can be on video simultaneously and up to 100 users can watch the stream live. If you want to give it a try, just join our RWW video chat room here.

Pro Version: Better Video Quality, Recording, and Screen Sharing

Some of the best features of Tinychat are hidden behind a pay wall. Tinychat offers a pro version for $20 a month which will come with better video quality (though the regular video quality isn't too bad). Other features available with the pro version are: the ability to reserve names for up to five rooms, more privacy controls (including password protected rooms), and, maybe most importantly, the ability to record and save your conferences.

For now, the pro account allows you to download the various streams separately as FLV files and edit them in your favorite video editor (though you might need a converter to turn the Flash video into a format that your video editor can use). Soon, though, Tinychat Pro will also give users a widget that will allow paying users to just embed a video with the recorded chat as well.

Sadly, the screen sharing feature is only available for paying customers. We got a chance to test it, though, and while it only refreshes about once a second, and would hence not work well if you were planning to stream videos over it, the image quality was excellent and the refresh rate is probably sufficient for most of the online demos it would most likely be used for.

We talked to Tinychat's CEO, Dan Blake, as he and his team were developing this new app over the last few weeks. He told us that, as part of Tinychat's business model, the company will also provide white-label versions of Tinychat to corporations which will not have any limits on the number of viewers.

Verdict

While Tinychat will be great for just getting a group of friends together, we could also see how this could be a great tool to easily create a video podcast with multiple guests (similar to what TechVi is doing, for example). In some ways, the new Tinychat is similar to the now defunct Yahoo Live platform, though with more features and an easier to use interface. Yahoo abandoned this product last November, but Tinychat might just find a nice niche here, especially thanks to its close connection to social media tools like Twitter and Facebook.

Give it a Spin

If you would like to try Tinychat out with us, just head over to our room here.

Besides the basic chat function, TinyChat also features the ability to add a badge with your chatroom status to your blog or social networking profile. You can also save a copy of your chat log by saving it as a text file, or by forwarding it to your email account.

Hidden Features: Choose Your Own URL and Private Chat

If you don't want to use TinyChat's cryptic names for your chatroom, you can also choose your own by just appending it to the TinyChat URL. If you want to send a private message, just click on the person's name and your message will be invisible to the rest of the room.

The chatroom concept does feel a bit retro, and it would be nice if you could receive some kind of audio or visual notification whenever a new message was posted to your room, but overall, the service just does what it say it does, and it does it well.

iPhone and Flash Coming Soon

Dan Blake, TinyChat's developer, tell us that they are also currently working on a simple iPhone app and a flash widget. If you like TinyChat, you should also check out TinyPaste (short URLs for long quotes) and iOJ (file uploading and sharing app) from the same developers.