January 12, 2016

To Peach Or Not To Peach





Who says Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Vine,Periscope, LinkedIn, Snapchat and Instagram are enough to quench a social media appetite?
There's a new social networking app on the block, Peach for Apple iOS devices. Launched on January 7 by Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann, the app picked up considerable buzz over the weekend.
Here are five questions about Peach:
1. What is Peach?
It's got equal bits of most social networks, most notably Twitter and the hot collaboration tool Slack. Friends with access to your username or phone number can add you as a friend. You can also tell friends about Peach to entice them to join.
2. What makes it different?
Magic Words, special commands similar to Slack, add unique updates such as GIFs, Shout (say something with big words), Draw (doodle on screen) or Here to share where you are. Many options include a search function, such as Movie, TV, Game and Book. Updates are meant to be short and sweet, offering a quick glimpse at your activity. If you don't have any idea what to post, you can click a lightbulb to give you ideas (similar to the random question option in Ask.fm).
3. Where I can download it?
Right now, it's only available on Apple's App Store.
4. Why the sudden interest in this app?
It started through word of mouth on Twitter soon after it launched and grew from there. According to iTunes charts, it's the eighth most popular social networking app, ahead of familiar names including Tumblr and Periscope.
5. You sure this isn't the next Ello?

If you'll recall, that was the last red-hot social media app, billed as the "anti-Facebook" for offering a very clean look and promising to keep your updates private. It attracted lots of attention last fall and hasn't been heard from since. Will Peach meet the same fate? Hard to say. It's fun and easy to use, plus the option to search for stuff like GIFs without leaving the app is really nice. The big concern here is what features does Peach offer (or will provide in the future) and make it unique in a really crowded space. Magic Words could be huge if more functions are supported (reserve a table at a restaurant then invite friends all within the app, for example).

By Brett Molina - USA Today


The hottest new social media app is Peach.
Why? Because it's fun! Now, we know you're probably thinking, "OK, but do I really need to be on another app?" Well, if you want one app that takes the best of all of your current favorite social media apps and rolls it into one, then get on Peach.
The sweet little app created a massive Twitter storm almost as soon as it rolled out last Friday.
Vine founder Dom Hofmann and the team at Byte created the app, per Laughing Squid. Its tagline is simple: "A space for friends."

Peach's unique interface sets it apart from social media apps like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Mashable described it best by saying it's a mix of Slackand Facebook. 


Each user has their own stream or feed, where they can put pretty much whatever they want. But in order to put content other than basic text and emojis, the user has to say a "magic word." 
"Magic words" are special keywords that allow the user to draw a doodle, produce a GIF, enter their location and much more. This sort of "command line interface" isn't new, but on Peach, it's a lot of fun.
The quirkiness of the words and their results lets users branch outside the realm of photo editing or simply regurgitating thoughts. "Song" works like Shazam, "move" displays data from your fitness tracker, and "rating" lets you rate whatever arbitrary thing you want (for example: "dinner tonight: 2 stars").
Individual streams end up resembling Tumblr pages, with endless scrolls and amalgamations of GIFs, text, quotes and images. 
There's also a cool camera feature. It does quadruple duty in letting you create photos, videos, GIFs and collages.

Individual streams have definitely taken on a stream-of-consciousness sort of tone, and can be pretty well described like this: 

Right now, the app is user-friendly, and it takes less than a minute to sign up for an account after downloading. There appear to be no restrictions on usernames or passwords, so think twice before believing the celebrity you're following is the real deal.
It's unclear if Peach is going to fizzle out and die like Meerkat (though BGR isalready calling it), but excitement about it has definitely waned a bit since its launch a few days ago. Perhaps once Peach leaves the media-obsessed bubble it's been living in, the world will appreciate it the way it deserves to be appreciated. 
But it's important to remember that, as Dita Von Teese says, “You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there's still going to be somebody who hates peaches.”
By Jenna Amatulli - Huffington Post


You’ve probably heard quite a bit about social networking/messaging app Peach. Some say it’s dumb, some say it’s great, and a lot say something in between. What do I feel about it? It feels fresh. Fresh in a way that Twitter, Path, WhatsApp and Messenger doesn’t feel.
Mind you, it’s on a massive hype-train right now so take it all with a grain of salt. But by all means, please do give it a try. No need to let cynicism stop you from giving it a shot. Speaking of which, it seems like a lot of people are doing just that:

Peach is currently at #120 overall on Apple’s App Store in the US for free apps, and is #9 in social networking (along with some pretty good company.) Instead of thinking of the rise as a “hype” or “bust” moment, it signals to me that there are sets of folks out there willing to try new things. We haven’t hit peak consumer apps as of yet. So as much as Snapchat continues to catch fire and Messenger gets smarter, there’s a need — or want — for something “else.”
I’ve been using Peach all weekend and the best I can tell is the key is to not add a ton of people to your graph, as the more intimate the communication is, the better. There’s also a sense of accomplishment you feel once you get a hang of its “Magic Words,” its command-line interface to share different pieces of content within the app. It’ll be fun to see what other commands get added.
I’m also having fun with taking photos in a way that feels like an animation, video or Facebook Boomerang.
Groundbreaking? No. New? Fresh? Yes. Once an app hits a category top 10 there’s an organic thing that happens where those who don’t read tech Twitter or tech press gets a hold of it.
Drew Olanoff - Tech Crunch



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