Once there was a app called Yo. All it did was send your friends the message “Yo.” It was one of the best mobile apps ever made, and while it still exists, everyone deleted it many years ago and there is no one for Yo anymore. Now a new app, Honk, would like us to Yo again, but this time we say “Honk.”
Honk positions itself primarily as a messaging app designed to make text-based chat feel more like having an IRL conversation. After you download the app on iOS (no Android yet), open a chat with a friend and you’ll see a livestream of what your girlfriend is writing in real time. There are no group chats at the moment. This is about recreating a one-on-one interaction, complete with the ability to feel comfortable-telling secrets as each message disappears as it arrives. You still want your real secrets limited to Signal or an old-fashioned whisper in your ear, but this works for the fun stuff.
We tested it out, and everything seems to be in order. You can send photos or animated reactions that explode on the screen, but most of the time you are just talking to someone while you see them correct typos or decide to say something else. Has anyone ever texted you and immediately followed up with, “I should not have said that”? That person had no excuse. They should have looked at their message before sending it. But on Honk, a user can finally blame a bad message on a reckless sliding of the tongue (or finger).
But you can not just unload an info dump to your friends when they are not nearby –they need to be in the app to see notifications. To chat with a friend, you have two options: Open the app and see who’s online, or send them a Honk. The Honk button sends them a message saying “[Insert friend name] totted you. “If a user presses the button again, a message will be sent saying”[Insert friend name] kissed you again. ”
While the real-time messaging thing might appeal to some people out there, I would argue that sending a Honk is Honk’s true killer feature, and it is to be used primarily to send cryptic honks. I just need everyone to download the app in a short time so I can know my Honks are finding a home.
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