The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of utilizing 'Flipgrid,' a PC and mobile device video recording and social media application, as a means of practice in an English communication class. The present small-scale study was conducted at a Japanese national university in a first-year ESL classroom. The practical implications of this study inform on innovative ways to improve communicative English engagement in higher learning education. In this case, student presentation videos and online video discussion tasks were recorded using the Flipgrid application on student smartphones. The data collection methods consisted of teacher observations, video data and student responses recorded via a questionnaire. For the researchers, taking these first steps impacts broader language and technology research in the future.