Scrolling through the garden of the Gods 😎 - Some thoughts on Appics post APX launch

It’s been really cool to follow the surge in activity on the APPICS App following their recent update, as can be seen in the increase in users also on steemapps.com. I’ve spent some more time with the app (and casually observed the engagement on other platforms such as their telegram and other social media sites) and thought I would add some thoughts.

Before even talking about the new token and its effect, the first thing for anyone new to APPICS to know is simply how good your pictures look on the app! Now, this has always been the case for APPICS, but it is still worth stressing because it is unfortunately rare for early blockchain products. Most apps still look and feel very basic compared to their non-blockchain competitors, and it is as if we've simply come to accept that it is part of an early technology to be ugly. But not APPICS!

It is the only blockchain-based product I know of that just looks better than the alternatives I and most others use "in the real word", aka Instagram and Facebook's mobile app. This is really cool, and it is going to be interesting to see if this means that APPICS can attract more "normies" who don't really care if a product is "decentralized" or uses some fancy tech, but who just want it to look cool and to be something they feel like showing off to their friends.

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^{Nobody can take away from APPICS that their UI looks amazing!}

But back to the new APX token launch. The first positive experience is seeing that my posts there seem to obtain organic engagement from app users, even a day or two after posting it. This just shows that there are active users actually looking for content, and who seem to care about reaching out in order to make connections to people. A positive contrast to the mostly automated votes I seem to be getting by curation snipers on Steem these days. This is obviously a great sign, as a common reason why many apps fail to launch is when the early users experience entering a ghost town without human beings and meaningful interactions (which is often the case when the early user-base is small and fragmented).

Overcoming this initial barrier is in my opinion key, as blockchain/cryptocurrency-based products already provide users with initial doubts, as the value in the tokens appear alien and confusing at first. Thus, ensuring that the new users still experience meaningful interactions, generating new following, and reaching new people with their content, is key as those are values that everyone already understands and don’t need to be convinced of. Thus investing more time in the app seems more likely, compared to if the only benefit is earning a token whose value you as a new “normal” user are not yet convinced of.

So all in all, I am very positive to see how the new token launch has brought new life and energy to a Steem-based app, and will be following it closely both as a user and as a curious observant. I suppose the only question for me is whether or not I want to continue using this app with my main Steem account considering how it will continue to share short form content also to my normal blog. We’ll see!