Path: A Review

Recently, I started playing around with Path. A social media app that does essentially the same thing as any other social network, but with some interesting new concepts. I’ve made it a point to use it often to try it out, and despite the fact that only two of my friends actually use it, I’ve come to like it a lot.

The first thing I noticed that I didn’t realized I liked so much was my personal profile. It’s a profile picture, cover photo, first and last name, phone number if you want your friends to be able to find you, and that’s it. No usernames, no @handles, no bios, no websites, nothing. I like it quick and simple, and this is definitely it.

Even though it’s possible on other social media platforms, Path offers a neat variety of update options:

• Photo/Video – Pretty self explanatory, but they offer FILTERS! THANK GOD. And I can blur parts of my image? Sign me up! You can also tag your location and who’s in that picture with you as long as they’re a Path user.
• Location – Path teamed up with Foursquare, and you can imagine, a lot of the locations are not up to date because Foursquare has fallen slightly off the grid. Have no fear, you can easily create a new location in a snap. No mayorship, though, sorry.
  
• Listening to/Watching/Reading – this is my favorite part of Path, especially “watching” and “reading.” As a girl who spends way too much time watching TV instead of reading books, it gives me the chance to see what’s popular or highly recommended to start reading. I’m waiting for the day where Path integrates with TV shows so that I can accurately depict my binge-watching. For now, users are limited to movies and single songs (instead of an album). Path is smart and can see what’s playing on your iTunes, Apple fans!
• Text – Because everyone just wants to be heard 🙂
• Asleep/Awake – Mildly creepy, but fun. Click the moon once you go to bed, and hit the sun when you wake up (attention all stalkers, you can rob my house now!), but be sure to remember to wake up, or else you’ll have an incredibly long sleep recorded.

The timeline reminds me of what Facebook always wanted to be (or maybe, used to be). Gone are the days of Buzzfeed articles, “which _____ are you?” quizzes, random conversations between friends that you don’t care about, or (the best part, in my opinion) advertisements. It’s sleek and clean, features flat icons (I love flat icons), allows for comments and “stickers,” and that’s it.

These stickers replace the “like” or “favorite” on other social media sites. You’re given the free options of smile, wink, surprised/shocked, frown, or heart (most likely to be a “favorite” or “love). You can also comment on others’ updates, which opens up more of these stickers, featuring a face with a monocle and false mustache. You can’t go wrong with a sticker like that. Then, Path tries to sell you fun stickers like kissing and mushy “Valentines” or “Adios” which features a very active Grim Reaper. All these sticker sets are $1.99 each.

Users’ updates also showcase the number of views it received, along with who saw it, liked it, winked at it, commented on it, etc. Everything is very public on Path – post wisely! You can, though, create your “inner circle” and select posts only be shared with those users, as well as mark a post “private” to only you and users you select.

Path also has a standard messaging feature, as well as a notification panel to see who interacted with your status updates, very similar to many social media platforms all of us know and love.

I know jumping into a new social media profile is generally annoying, but Path allows you to integrate with the widest variety of platforms I’ve seen yet – Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, and WordPress. Give it a shot, and find me!