Private social networks are making a comeback. Plus’s gratitudestartup that goals to steer social media in a more positive direction is expanding its personal wellness journal to incorporate support for families who need to stay connected even when they’re physically apart.
The startup, whose name reflects its core offering of a gratitude journal, is in some ways paying homage to Path, which was founded many years ago. Path briefly emerged as a challenger to Facebook, creating a space for smaller groups of individuals to interact with each other. The app distinguished itself by limiting users to simply 50 friends, ensuring that their interactions remained in narrower circles than on larger social networks.
Path gained popularity for a while, and while it never toppled Facebook, it provided an example of how private social networking could work if done right. (The company raised too much enterprise capital funding to recoup its dead-end investment, so Path was sold to Korean company Kakao in 2015).
Likewise, Gratitude Plus is not intended for use by a general audience. Instead, it encourages users to develop healthier relationships and higher mental health habits by offering a space to journal, track mood, and stay connected with family and friends through small, private “circles” on its app.
“I designed it to be very simple,” says the app’s New York founder and creator, Daniel Shaffer. “I wanted people to feel like they were writing in an elegant journal.”
Once you open the app, it’s going to ask you to put in writing a easy query in your journal: Name three stuff you are grateful for today. You may also change the prompt to other suggestions, comparable to “What made you smile today?”, “What are you looking forward to today?” and others or you possibly can write your individual. Journal reminders will also be set to random, so you will receive latest ones every day. Optionally, you possibly can include photos as an instance their answers.
However, unlike a private diary, your responses to the app’s prompts are intended to be shared with a private group, comparable to members of the family, close friends, or even your partner.
“When I talked to users, they loved that it was an app where they could take a minute or two to think about their day,” Shaffer said.
Shaffer says he was inspired to create Gratitude Plus by the death of his mother. He says his grief journey led him to hunt down more accessible mental health tools and pushed him to build a well-being platform that folks could use to attach with friends and family to remain connected in a more positive and personal way than this is possible through traditional social media. He’s not alone in searching for these sorts of tools; one other startup founded by widows, DayNew, offers a social platform for people struggling with things like grief and trauma.
However, with Gratitude Plus, the focus is not necessarily on healing grief, but on maintaining relationships that are vital in the present.
With the launch of the latest Family Plan on Mother’s Day (Sunday), as much as 4 members can share a premium subscription for $74.99 per 12 months.
In addition to private networks, the social feed, based on anonymous shares from individual users, also permits you to see how other members of the wider app community are feeling that day. Users can interact with these posts by leaving hearts or messages of support. Shaffer said about 50% of the app’s users share content anonymously on the feed.
“People feel really good when they support other people. “That’s one of the magical things is that if you keep going here and have a negative attitude, you’ll send some messages to people and you’ll feel better,” he says. “A lot of people say it’s kind of like a positive social network.”
Gratitude Plus encourages each day habits with features like push notifications and streaks, but Shaffer believes the biggest draw comes from the people you employ the app with: family, friends, partner, child and others you would like to connect with. Some users also post in the application with a larger group of friends, for example from their dorm or school, or even with a group of other YC founders.
Shaffer plans so as to add more mental well-being tools to the app, comparable to meditation, breathwork and more.
The freemium app is currently used by over 10,000 users, of which 650 are on a paid subscription plan offering access to more features,