I Could Just Punch You

What the hell is this?

Texting with no text. A messaging app with no messages. A conversation with no written or spoken words. It’s a punch; the simplest form of intentionally sending a contextual signal using a mobile device. It rides on the same rails as a notification but carries none of the payload. It’s a knock on the door, a pat on the back, a tug at your sleeve, a tap on the shoulder, all at once. What do all those things have in common? They are all nonverbal cues two people can instantly understand. They also require some degree of proximity. Punchya doesn’t. I can punch a person across the table, in the next room, in the back of a cab or in an office a thousand miles away.

Why not just text?

What’s stopping you? Every phone ships with a Messaging app built-in. If you've got the thumbs and the time, knock yourself out. Text the next great American novel. Punchya isn’t for a message that needs to be read.

We’ve all been in meetings that could have been an email. We’ve all received email that could have had the immediacy of a text.

A text makes you compose, and it makes the other person read, weigh and answer, because an unanswered text is a small open loop. It sits there like unfinished business nagging you to tap out a response when you have the time to devote to it. At the airline gate, you don't owe anyone a paragraph about the line at security. You owe them one fact: I made the flight.

A punch carries the fact and nothing else. And since there's no content, there's nothing to misinterpret or risk getting loose in the wild. The Privacy Policy is short, simple and sweet. Bottom line: the value is between sender and recipient, everything else is just scaffolding to make the connection.

This sounds familiar…

Facebook's “poke” had the same empty payload. It had no agreed meaning, and it faded. I don't know that those two facts are connected. It's a hunch.

My other hunch is about the name. "Poke" is awkward to say out loud. Once a word turns into a verb, people either adopt it or feel silly saying it, and a silly name loses people before they've tried the thing. People punch a clock. They punch in, punch out, punch up. It's a word you can say without wincing.

I could be wrong about that too. A name nobody likes is one of the outcomes I'm watching for.

A horn, not a whoopee cushion

It’s too easy to treat and dismiss this as a novelty, until you use it like a utility. Think of a car horn. A short tap at a green light means the light changed. A tap at someone crossing means I'm here. A long blast means something else entirely, and that's where road rage comes from. Same instrument, same sound, different meanings, and the driver behind you gets it.

Punchya has a simple sound. You can swap it for a different one, but the app adds no meaning.

That's why it is so hard to say, “it does X”. If I give you a use case, you'll file the app under that use case and never consider it for anything else. I'd rather you find your own ways to use it and not try to pigeonhole it.

Don’t install it. Yet.

Pick someone you text constantly. Before the next conversation, settle what you'll say without saying it. If you always go to lunch together: I'll punch you when I'm out of the meeting. Punch me if you want coffee. That's the whole exercise. Preload the conversation. Run that experiment. If you catch yourself typing and wondering why your phone couldn’t just do this for you - you’ve got it. Now install Punchya.

Once it’s installed, here’s a trick I've found. A punch with no preloaded meaning still works as a knock on the door. If I get one back, I know the person is at their phone and not ignoring me. Then I follow up with a text and ask the real question.

How will YOU use it?

Punchya has proven useful since the very first punch. I’ve been punched at 2:30AM to take care of a sick dog. My brother punched me when he was ready in our airport pickup spot. I’ve been punched when there were groceries to carry inside. So far it’s only family and friends using it. I don't have a stranger's codebook yet. The public beta is open and I'm waiting to hear about stuff I didn't design for. What little tricks and behaviors will you discover? The About section has a link to Bacon Cheese Frosting and I read every message sent to the Contact form - no bots here!

Join our iOS Beta Program

Want to try Punchya before anyone else? Let's get all the cool people on it before the influencers show up. Just follow these instructions to install Apple's free TestFlight app and join the Beta test.