Ping [App Review]

‘You’re going to like me.’

Now, when I read that sentence, I don’t know what me is. But me holds a lot of promise, so I’ll probably give it a go. This statement is the only explanation we’re given by app developers ‘Secret, Inc.’ – About their new(ish) app Ping. So with my intrigue piqued, I give it a download.

Upon launch, I’m immediately impressed by the monochromatic, minimalist style of it. 

Although, simplicity on the eye doesn’t always translate to simplicity of use, and it takes some wild thumb stabbing before I realise that I should probably press the dot in the middle of the screen.

Maybe I’m just a bit slow.

I’m instructed on the following screen (that I’m led to through the slightly disarming instruction of ‘touch me’) to jab at the things that interest me. 

To the joy of the designer in me, each of the options I choose light up a pretty colour, and every time I touch the screen, the colours change. Very exciting. It’s little touches (pun not intended) like this that amaze me in an app, it doesn’t have to be all singing all dancing… just nice. Oh, and I still don’t know what me is.

Once I’ve told it what I like in life, I hope that I’m presented with something that blows my tiny mind… What actually follows is this:

Oh.

But, you know what, it’s right. I do like this, but I don’t really know why. It slowly feeds me content to engage my brain and amuse my eyes throughout the day, in a really sweet, friendly manner. It really is just a bit of what I like. It doesn’t bombard you, and the slow trickle of information provided is just enough to make having a phone that bit more interesting.

So if you’ve got a spare bit of space on your phone, and want casual distractions throughout the day for no particular purpose other than to amuse you, this is one to download. Oh, and one of the options is to get occasional anonymous secrets from their original app ‘Secrets’, which are generally pretty amusing… Review on that one to follow...