Cocoon is a dedicated space for the most important people in your life. You use it with a single group who you want to feel closer with — it's like your home, on your phone.
Does anyone remember the Path app? Why did Path end up failing? It was beautifully designed and promoted the same value prop as Cocoon. Was Path to early to the space? Is second time the charm? Is there enough people who buy into this vision to turn it into a business? How much traction would it take to make sure Cocoon can stay operational?
@adamwebber I'll always welcome comparisons to Path, as I was a huge fan of the app and what they accomplished. Indeed, we share similar goals around supporting close relationships. While there is certainly narrative overlap, the construction of our solution differs in important ways.
Cocoon is not a social network. A network, even when capped in size, is still ultimately a broadcast medium between asymmetrically connected individuals. The dynamics around sharing, privacy, identity management etc still apply, just as they would in a large network.
Cocoon's model is more like a group thread. There is no network. The app is a private space for you and the few people who've decided to be in your Cocoon together. This creates an intimate/interconnected group dynamic that wouldn't be possible in a network of individuals.
Of course, who knows if that's ultimately any better of a model lol, but it is distinct.
I'm glad Cocoon reminds people of Path, because Path was awesome. We ultimately are trying to achieve very similar goals, just in a different way.
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I really want to be excited for this, but in it's current state it's not really usable for me _yet_. I really hope that changes. I know I've seen @alexcornell touch on this on twitter (referring to it as the in-law problem) but lots of people will belong to different Cocoons. With a platform like Cocoon, I expect I'll want to share the same content with quite a few different groups. I'm hoping we'll see a way to do that easily that doesn't require going through the post flow over and over again or spam people who are in multiple cocoons with you with the same content.
I'd also like to see more post types and search features, I feel like those were both ways that Path really shined.
@_taurean Thanks Taurean, multi-Cocoon is top (almost, technically #2) of our list right now. It's very important. We had to prioritize the basics ahead of it, getting to launch, but we're working hard on it now.
Looking forward to hearing what you think once we have it ready :)
Love this. I despise social networks in all their forms and I can see how this is different. The only thing I'd ask is.... is everything toggle-able? I think even with your closest network of family some of the automated updates on your promo video are a bit much. Everything should be optional. Everything.
@mickc79 Good question Mick – currently location is toggleable at three different altitudes (precise, city-level, and hidden). The rest of the status items (like weather, steps, local time etc) are toggleable either at the app level (motion settings for steps) or as a result of your location setting (weather).
We are working on providing in-app toggles for each item directly, so you don't need to think about how they're connected or fret with the Settings app. Just simple on/off for everything from within Cocoon.
Congrats on launching this @monga. App looks really refined !
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Would it be weird to use this by myself as a sort of daily journal? I’ve been looking for a replacement to Path which I used as a daily journal and had unfriended everyone since they stopped using it.
@iamjmw It wouldn't be weird! In fact I'd be quite interested to hear how it goes. I'll say, it's certainly not designed with that use case in mind ... but I do think it could work (depending what you're looking for).
Please give it a go and let me know how it goes (feedback @ cocoon)
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