After an internal hackathon weekend, the makers of the anonymous social app Secret, have developed an app for notifications dubbed Ping for iOS users.
Ben Lee, principal designer of Secret wrote in a blog post introducing the app that Ping is an app that gives information to users they want to know and that they don’t have to “scavenge” for content.
The app does not require the user to sign up or have a username. Obviously, there is no requirement for a username as they don’t share anything with the others.
The app stays in the lock screen of the devices and is activated automatically once the screen is locked. The app itself is a black dot, tapping and pulling it down while holding the dot opens the app with an animation looking like peeling down a sticker on the screen.
The app displays a list of topics the user is interested in knowing about and users are asked to choose their desired topics.
When a new update is available on the chosen item, the user is notified of it. Currently, there is only a limited number of topics available including Movies worth watching, Ping updates, Daily fortune cookies, Random thoughts, etc, and the list will be populated with new topics as the company pushes them in future.
The app started with only a bunch of topics and it soon increased within a few hours. Therefore, it is expected that more topics will be introduced eventually.
The content comes from various RSS feeds and such sources. For instance, the content on movies comes from Rotten Tomatoes. The app is said to be an automated version of Yo, giving users updates on topics they are interested in knowing about.
Secret’s David Byttow said that the app will evolve over time and users will be “surprised and delighted” by the content introduced in future if they continue to use it.
