A space for friends
If you spend any time on Twitter, you’ve seen the flurry of peach emojis. Whether you’ve caught on to what’s happening or not, the bevy of fruit-centered social media focus has been tied to the launch of a new social media app, aptly named Peach.
Peach was created by Vine founder Dom Hofmann and is aimed at serving a relatively restricted audience. Peach’s simple tagline is “A space for friends.”
Not quite so peachy
However, things may not be as peachy for Peach despite what you may have heard.
On paper, the new social media app is already a success. It has the attention from big name media sources like The Washington Post, as well as tech analysts across the country. Many are touting it as the next biggest social media app and the newest game changer, but the naysayers are also making the rounds.
We’ve already analyzed the appeal and offering of Peach, but today, let’s discuss viability.
The viability of Peach
If it is hoping to compete as a social network, Peach will have to establish itself as a player among the already established competition. While the most popular social media apps brought something brand new to the game, Peach seems to be a blend of those apps’ core features.
Tech writer Tero Kuittinen noted, just days after the launch, the lack of early download traction is troublesome, living in the top 100 app downloads for only ten short hours.
Lani Rosales, Chief Operating Officer here at The American Genius said in a recent live video chat that the app appears to be a combination of Slack, Snapchat, and Twitter, but inadvertently built specifically for narcisists. She also points to a UX trainwreck, specifically taking to task the after-thought that appears to be the status update feed (for example, when an animated gif is posted, the feed shows the word “gif” but not the actual gif, indicating more thought went into the person posting than the persons receiving).
“It’s like Twitter for people who hate actual news,” Rosales said, concluding that the app is probably not designed for people like her, but will likely catch on in very specific niches. Perhaps fashion, perhaps celebrity gawking, perhaps middle school children.
Final take: Peach is niche
Given its offerings and interest, Peach will most likely be a boom for some niches, but it won’t necessarily be a mainstream app. For the niche that does adopt it, Peach will be the apple, or should I say peach, of their eye.
