I don’t know who made the call at Twitter HQ (aka the Twoffice) that Twitter was only about the free-flow of information where an SMS message can span the globe within seconds and that would be all the service would become. Twitter has added support for location and images (via a partnership) and their UI has undergone radical changes over the past 5 years but Twitter is unchanged. While Facebook and thousands of startups are pushing the envelope of what it means to share, Twitter ran with the concept invented in 2003 in Jack Dorsey’s head and remained there.
I wasn’t disappointed in Twitter until I started using Path.
Path adds context to your thought with the attachment of songs, photos, location and people. On the surface, the features I listed off are already available in Twitter. You can attach a location, copy an iTunes URL and the preview loads within Twitter.com’s side-drawer and you can share photos and video and tag people using the @ symbol before their name. However, these features aren’t complete and they’re not seamless and they’re not intuitive. Normal people don’t understand how Twitter works or what hashtag is or how the @ symbol works. They don’t see the bar in Chrome when Twitter asks to use their location so therefore they never know to enable the feature and the issue of conversations has been improved but it’s not perfect…it’s not Facebook perfect. The only feature I LOVE about Facebook over Twitter is comments that tack on to a post instead of simply showing up in a Replies panel chronologically as they come in where the only way you know what the person was reply to is by sliding your finger or double-clicking. Even Replies / Mentions is confusing to the populace.
This is a sidetrack for just a moment then we’ll get back to Path:
Last week, I spoke at Dartmouth on social media. I had 2 slides dedicated to replies & mentions and how to define each. I had to spend 5 minutes explaining who sees your replies and who doesn’t. Here’s an example of that explanation:
- Note: You are Jim and you follow Tom & Steve. Steve follows Tom but does not follow you. Tom follows You and Steve.
- Note: A reply is where you reply to someone’s tweet but it’s also where you put the @ symbol at the start of the tweet (with no space or characters coming before it). A mention is where you use the @ symbol and the person’s user name at any point in the tweet as long as it is after a character, word, punctuation or space in the tweet. A mention can be anywhere, a reply must be at the start.
- You send a reply to Tom commenting on his recent status. Since Steve follows Tom and not you, Steve will not see that reply since he only follows Tom and not you.
- You send a reply to Steve commenting on his recent status. Since Tom follows both you and Steve, he will see your reply to Tom.
- If Tom and Steve are chatting, you will see their entire back and forth reply thread as it happens but if you interject and reply only to Steve, Tom won’t see this and you must put both of their usernames in their reply.
- On the other hand, if that conversation is going and you send a reply to Steve, Tom will never know you did that and thus will be missing that part of the conversation.
- If you mention Tom or Steve in your tweets, they will each see it but if you only mention one of them, only Tom will see it since he follows you. Steve does not so if you want him to see your tweet, just add him as a mention in the tweet and it will show up in his Replies / Mentions tab.
Before 2009, this was actually a setting on Twitter.com. You can go to the Twitter Blog to see documentation on how you used to be able to customize this to show all tweets from everyone you follow even if they weren’t replying to someone you also follow. Then, Twitter removed the setting which caused some temporary outrage.
I found a post on Twitter’s blog that documents how the old feature worked. 937 words.
In short, Facebook did a much better implemtation at comments and conversations. It’s easier to follow in a HUGE way and I’m disappointed every time a new friend joins Twitter because I have to spend close to half an hour explaining this to them. Twitter has tried to solve this problem by controlling the user interface of their apps and pushing away 3rd party clients but it’s still an idiotic feature that should evolve. Please Twitter, you listening?
Thank goodness Path chose the Facebook route for commenting and conversations.
You add friends based on who you know, not on their status. You don’t know how many friends the person has who you’re adding, the model who adding a bunch of celebrities or news feeds doesn’t work with Path and, the fact that it is strictly mobile means that the easy dumping of links, bullshit and syndicated crap won’t ever affect Path because copying a Huffington Post link into Path is just too much work. You’re limited to 150 friends (an increase from 50 in the previous version) and when you consider the average Facebook user has +/- 100 friends, this is a perfect number. When you have a friend, it’s not a follower mechanism, it’s a mutual friendship where you see their content and they see yours (like Facebook) so it’s important to think twice about who you allow in to your inner circle.
When you share content, there’s a choice to add additional context. You can tag a friend (Path auto-suggests friends you’ve recently tagged), add a location and then choose to syndicate your Path to Twitter, Facebook and FoursSquare. It’s a very simple model. Sharing a song is as simple as searching and posting, sharing an image has the choice of taking a photo or choosing one from your library and you’re free to add a crappy filter to it if you want. Your Path update can be as simple as just saying you’re with someone and then clicking post but I’d choose to also add a Foursquare location. Opening Path allows me to provide a hyperlink context of who I’m with and where I am and then syndicate that to Twitter & Facebook so already it’s kicking Foursquare’s ass in the check-in game but it also emulates /W (with.me) which was a Path Product that everyone drooled over and then forgot about. Listen, if I can’t Google search for your product “W/” without getting a Google Chrome error, you picked a crappy product name. Either way, the /W functionality is now a part of Path so problem solved.
Sharing a Path is actually even easier. Just opening the app when you go some place new will update your Path to your current location. I can drive into town and open the app and suddenly an auto-post occurs that I’m now in Lebanon, NH. It’s a feature you can disable but I like it.
Path has a beautiful UI but enough people have drooled over that. It’s so great that I don’t even think about the UI and that’s all I’m going to say about it. Nothing is hidden, missing or left out as far as I can tell and I’m not going to hunt and find a reason the UI sucks. There’s no point because I love using the product.
The best thing about the product is each post has a list of my friends’ faces that really only shows that they’ve looked at it. Look at my post and I know it instantly. In fact, if you’re looking at my profile specifically (click on my avatar), and I have the app open, a roll over bar appears at the bottom letting me know that Ben is looking at my page. Pretty cool. After looking at a Path, you can add an emoticon or a comment. Simple, effective and easy.
Move over Twitter. Path is our new bathroom pastime.
Twitter’s mobile apps force you to click URLs, @ symbols, hashtags and photo links to view the content our friend thought was so important to share. Path includes it in-line so there’s no tapping. Scroll for hours and see what your friends are up to. It’s simple and easy and very adaptable to any bathroom routine…lifting the seat is optional but please wash your hands.
There are dozens of additional features that I love about Path but, in truth it’s worth checking out. I’d offer to be your friend but you’ll have to find me first. Path encourages you to only add friends in your contact list or that you are friends with on Facebook but there’s a little search bar as well.
I’m stoked for this app and I’ve used it twice as much as Twitter this week. I’m going to stick with it. It’s pretty damn great.