Leave Facebook alone. Argue better with this app

I once posted a Facebook status about sneezing so hard I fell out of my chair, and two people got into a multiple-comment argument on the post. I don’t remember what it was about, but it wasn’t about sneezing, and it was annoying – I was getting a notification every time as more and more people joined the debate (this was back before you could unsubscribe to a post). What I thought was going to be a hilarious though self-deprecating look into a situation so characteristic of me turned into a vicious policy debate.

Let’s face it. Facebook, for all its relevance today, can be a pain in the ass. People we connect with have different opinions. The result can be long and drawn out comment wars where people get angry (not to mention I’ve never seen someone change their opinion because of a Facebook comment war, but I’ve seen friendships destroyed because of it). Not everyone fact checks their opinions. Not everyone is in the mood to debate – or learn.

Facebook can be a pain in the ass.

You could – as many people have – painstakingly curate your Facebook feed so that it only shows the things you like and the opinions you want to hear. Or, you can follow Akshat Jain and Anuj Goel​ and go to another platform entirely.

Swipe, the free app available for Android and iOS, takes issue voting down to a simple two-choice answer. Users vote on issues – like whether women should change their last names when they marry – by swiping left or right.

Once a user votes, he or she finds out what the voting spread is like among other Swipe users. By creating a screenname, anyone who has voted can participate in the ensuing discussion in the comments. They may explain why they voted the way they did or expound upon their answers.

Swipe has been launched in English and Hindi. Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam will be introduced later, followed by other regional languages. It will introduce a voting widget that allows users to vote on a third party website.

Not your grandfather’s polling firm

The idea for Swipe came from a desire to provide people with an anonymous (no influence from friends) educational space for debate and to learn on certain issues. Only those motivated enough for debate would download the app, and with Facebook, Twitter, and other more mainstream social media spaces already available for a variety of content, Swipe becomes somewhat of an intellectual coffee shop-type app for social media opinions.

“Data can solve many problems. If you have data of what people want, that helps fixing or solving the problem in a much better fashion,” says Akshat.

He believes that people aren’t their real selves on mainstream social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. They write things that will make them popular or will get them approval from their friends. Taking their friends out of the picture with a degree of anonymity can help see what people are really thinking.

Swipe becomes somewhat of an intellectual coffee shop-type app for social media opinions.

New direction

Swipe got over 10,000 users in its first two months, but the rise in users has decreased. Instead, the company has shifted focus from gaining new users to keeping users who are loyal and want to express their opinions, as well as building relationships with NGOs that want to use Swipe’s data.