About three weeks ago, a new social network called Peach leapt into the world. Folks started tweeting their usernames and uploading GIFs and sketches to this new app. Forget Snapchat — Peach is now the hottest new thing. And for good reason: Peach is fun. Peach combines the live feed of Twitter with the image and GIF-sharing ease of Tumblr, while flirting with a few of Facebook’s fundamentals (What's on your mind? Share it!). It’s a lot to digest, but Peach makes the assimilation process fairly easy. In fact, it’s Peach’s user-friendly interface that sets it apart from its competitors — along with how it inspires you to share your real self, instead of some filtered and perfected version.
But like all new social apps, it suffers from a few issues. What are we supposed to glean from using this app that we can't from Twitter, Tumblr, Snapchat, and other social networks? Are my friends on it — wait, how do I even find my friends on it?
We can’t say how ripe this Peach will be in a few months, but if you’re down to give it a taste, we’ll help you get started. Ahead, the ins and outs of one of 2016’s most intriguing new apps.
Read on for more.
Getting Started
When you first open Peach you’re welcomed with a screen that says, “See what’s new with your favorite people,” which drives home that Peach is a space for friendship. Everything else is more or less standard: pick a username, enter email, and an eight-digit password. Peach asks if it can send you push notifications, which sounds great — if you constantly like your battery dying. (But, notifications will help you keep coming back and checking out the Peachy action.)
Building Your Squad
Tapping the gear in the upper right let’s you change your profile picture (important), add a 200 character bio, and edit your name and your username. The information button is all about you. Well, at least your 200 character bio, and where you and others can view your friend list (#NoNewFriends). Next to that, the speech bubble-and-heart-combination button is your notification dashboard where you can tap a notification to reply directly.
Swiping right brings you to where you can assemble and see your “squad.” In a similar vein to Snapchat, adding and finding friends is Peach’s biggest downfall. You can sync your contacts to find your friends... And that’s pretty much it. You can add people specifically by username, too, if you know their username.
Once you do have a squad though, you can heart their posts, or wave at them, send them a cake, blow them a kiss, or a number of other emoji-inspired actions.
The Fun Stuff
But the best part about Peach includes the many fun prompts built right into the app, so you’ll never have to pause to think about what to post. Need a GIF to describe how terrible today has been? Start typing “GIF” and Peach lets you search using Giphy’s GIF engine. Bored in a meeting? Peach just added a new game feature if you type “play.”
Below are all the “Magic Words” you can use in Peach. We'll go into more detail about what some of them do momentarily:
play: Play a game of PEACHBALL.
image: Search for an image.
throwback: Add a random photo from your camera roll, along with the date and time it was taken.
mood: How are you feeling?
caption: Add text to a random GIF.
noise: Add the noise level of your current environment.
gif: Search for a GIF.
here: Add your current location.
shout: Say something with big words.
draw: Draw something.
good morning: Say good morning.
goodnight: Say good night.
song: Identify a song using your phone's microphone.
rate: Rate something one to five stars.
battery: Current charge percentage.
weather: Add the current weather.
move: Add movement today (steps, miles walked).
events: Number of events today.
safari: Open the Safari browser to search for a link.
dice: Roll a virtual die.
time: Add the current time.
date: Add the current date.
movie: Add a movie.
tv: Add a TV show.
game: Add a video game.
book: Add a book.
Try them out, you’re bound to have a ton of fun. (By the way, at this time, Peach unfortunately doesn’t allow editing whatsoever after you post. Boo.)
Draw, Shout, and Photos
Being able to create graphics in-app is smart — you never have to leave the app to do what you want to do.
Shout gives you the ability to mix text, color, an image, and even add an animation (if you dare), and it's super easy. Click, pick a color, add an image, add text, and swipe to add another frame. I may or may have made a sick, “Clear eyes, full heart, can’t lose” GIF using Shout. Trust me, it’s a valuable feature.
Draw is great because of it’s simplicity. It’s not asking you to draw a masterpiece (and to be honest, it wouldn't let you unless you have a stylus) — there are no options to change the size of the pen or the color. It’s just a blank canvas with a single weight digital pen where you can doodle totally unconsciously, without fear of being judged.
Peach’s camera feature also really stands out. No, there are no filters à la Instagram, because you don’t need a filter on an app that feels so #nofilter. But it lets you take a photo, video, GIFs, and even a grid of GIFs. Imagine, four GIFs of your cat with the single press of a button.
Games
As if Peach hasn’t already offered enough for you to stay hooked, last week they rolled out a game that will have you playing for hours: Peachball.
Simply put, Peachball is a game of basketball. If you are able to swipe the ball into the basket — truth be told, it took me three rounds of Peachball to finally get the ball in — the ball changes into a different emoji (such as a cookie, a bomb, a world, a bag of money, and a CD). This also changes the angle of the basket, making the game a little more challenging. Each time you get the ball in the basket you earn a throw, and each time you miss, you lose a throw. When the game is done, you’re able to share your score with your Peach buddies.
Lightbulb
Do you ever use an app and think to yourself, “What the hell am I supposed to post?” Peach pretty much flips that concept on its head. Its lightbulb prompt feature actually acts as a seed for status update ideas. With questions like, "What's a thought you've never said out loud?” and “What should you win a trophy for?” Peach encourages you to be open and honest.
Wrap-up
Peach is interesting because it presents itself as an all-in-one social networking platform. There are seemingly endless possibilities of how to use it.
I’ve seen it used as a strictly creative destination, a Tumblr-esque inspiration blog, a pseudo-Instagram, and even as a diary. Despite the “trendy, cool kid” app air, there’s almost a nostalgic quality to Peach, particularly in its simplicity. It’s inviting, and makes you feel safe enough to want to post something personal, to let out your inner weirdo.
But you could also say Peach suffers from an identity crisis — it wants to be everything at once and fails to find a true focus.
The lack of discoverability is a little upsetting since Peach offers some incredibly creative features. It’s disappointing not to be able to find the people who are using those features to the fullest.
Peach is certainly enjoyable, but will it earn a spot on our homescreen? We'll have to wait and see.
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