i'm not starting a podcast
but my friends & i already have one (sorry, you can't subscribe)
I know I’ve inadvertently turned this newsletter into a book blog but today: We’re taking a moment for this app.
Is the interface design and experience perfect? No, it’s definitely a little buggy. Is it the most secure messaging service out there? Likely not. (Consequently: Do I wonder if the real-time UI/UX updates I notice are driven by my friends and I having commented on a feature, or a lack thereof, weeks earlier? Sometimes.) Am I using it to spill my deepest, darkest insecurities? No, mostly. Does it indulge the sliver of College Radio Kid that still thrives on in my heart? 100%. And, above all, do I find it an immensely charming way to stay more in the loop with dear friends? Yes, yes, yes.
Cappuccino is a typical social-media-and-messaging app, except it takes an audio-first approach to sharing daily updates (there are options to integrate pictures and text, too, if you so wish to supplement your soundbites with imagery). Each soundbite (which the app calls “beans”—yes, I also screamed because HOW CUTE) can be up to three minutes long, and they collect throughout the day until the app stitches them together the next morning (“BREWING”!!). People have compared the messaging-via-media component to Snap, but the functionality was actually built as a framework to recreate the cozy experience of listening to a podcast with a familiar host—in the case of Cappuccino, friends are all hosts.
My friends and I end up co-creating (likely overzealous) slice-of-life style podcasts that sometimes get to be 40+ minutes long. Before you ask: we haven’t named the pod yet (ha). Typing it out, 40 minutes sounds like a lot. But I’ve found that mixing in almost an hour of comforting and hilarious and life-changing updates from people I love to my podcast subscription list about plants and science and news and facts and whatever else on Earth manages to make it into the rotation ... it’s a good way to start the morning.
In summary: Hi, it’s me, the highly satisfied target audience for Cappuccino. (See from this article again: “The most loyal users seem to be young women in their twenties. They want to keep in touch with long-distance best friends.”) This is my official recommendation for young women in their twenties AND not-in-that-category friends to (not) start a podcast with their besties.