Path 2 review

Selling a new social network (like Twitter) to friends (who only know Facebook) has to be one of the hardest sells I’ve ever attempted. Given that so few of my friends understand Twitter, I’ve been hesitant to recommend any new services.

Path 2 might be different—it distances itself from the social network moniker by calling itself a Smart Journal, one that writes itself.

What they’ve improved over the first version, I couldn’t say. I’ve had a Path account since the first version launched in 2010, but unfortunately I can’t say I’ve ever used it.

I wouldn’t normally touch on this area so early in the piece, but the folks at Path seem have clearly spent a lot of time working on the app’s user experience. My first thumbing through it was an epiphany of useability. How does this outfit make such a nice app when the big names are getting it so wrong? (OK, I concede that FB and Twitter have hundreds of millions more users to consider than Path’s mere 1 million).

Scoff if you like, but I think if Apple made a decent crack at a social network, Path 2 is what it might be like.

Path 2: the smart journal — a re-imagined, re-designed, simplified Path.

The ‘Smart Journal’

One of Path 2’s key differentiators from Facebook and Twitter is that it feels like it’s a combination of the two. There’s no character limit (that I know of), but writing too much doesn’t look good on the stream. Fortunately, my Path friends (all 48 of them) understand this.

Another feature of interest is that your friend count is limited to 150. This should discourage the popularity contests you see on FB and Twitter—everyone is on a reasonably even playing field.

It learns about you

I’ve only just read about this point on the website: it learns about you and “automatically updates your Path with important changes to your daily routine.” Yeah, that’s a bit scary; some of you will know how paranoid I get about artificial intelligence. #SkyNET!

It’s not perfect though, I often see friends complaining that that Path is welcoming them to New South Wales even though they haven’t left that state.

That it is a journal that “writes itself” is a bit of a stretch too. I live about 15 minutes from my office and (after examining my Google Location data) I walk in a straight line and back most days. Maybe I’ll complete an isometric triangle when I venture into the city now and then. My point here is that I don’t give it much opportunity for it to write new things about me—that or I’m too boring.

Have I mentioned how easy it is to use? The basic layout should be quite familiar to any Facebook or Twitter user. The screen is dominated by a stream of posts that is generated by you and your Path friends.

Accessing its key features is a synch. A red button displaying a + symbol and positioned at the bottom left of the screen suits right-handed users perfectly—the thumb falls onto it naturally and still allows the user to see the screen. Sorry lefties, it appears that you can’t move the button to suit your preferred thumbs!

A rather sweet animation occurs when you hit the button with 6 icons springing around it in a 90º arc. Typical functions are present with buttons for photos/videos, people (who you’re with), location check-ins and thoughts (i.e.: comments).

It also features two uncommon features: the ability to post the music that you’re listening to, with an in-built iTunes preview and a slightly more odd one—a sleep/awake button.

That last one might seem strange at first, but it has become a ritual for me. When you hit the sleep button, the app sleeps and posts a moon icon that your friends can see. Hitting the wake button opens it up for business so that your Path friends can see when to start hassling you.

For iOS users, the music functionality allows you to see what your friends are listening to ( I haven’t tested the Android version). There’s also a link through to the iTunes store, however, I haven’t been able to get it to work—perhaps it’s a US-only feature.

Share everything

Refreshingly, Path openly encourages you to post content to your existing outlets and with the touch of a button. Post a photograph, tag friends and check into a location over Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Four Square all in the one go. Sharing to these networks doesn’t feel as if it’s an afterthought or tacked on begrudgingly.

Path 2 treats photographs in a similar way to Instagram and Hipstagram. By taking a photo or selecting an existing one, you can apply a range of filters. The high-contrast, black and white ‘Ansel’ is the stand-out filter here. Sadly, there’s no option to post to Instagram.

Path 2 isn’t trying to replace the other networks—it doesn’t display your Twitter or Facebook streams so you’re forced you to flick between the apps if you want to see what’s happening outside of Path. This is where it becomes a bit hard to sell the idea to others—few feel they need, let alone want, another app that essentially does the same thing.

Those who frequently post to on social media and Tumblr should find Path 2 a welcome change from the half-baked feel of the iOS and Android Facebook apps and for iOS Twitter users, the recently reduced functionality of the Twitter app.

Real joy

Path 2 is a joy to use and in my opinion, a triumph of mobile app design. While I might find it hard to get friends to try new things, Path 2 would be an easy sell to the likes of Facebook, Google, Apple and Twitter—now there’s a thought!

Some kind of Apple-inspired ad.