Social media has fostered expectations of maximalism, hyper-beauty, and happiness, however this digital veneer has left some customers craving connection over aesthetics. Gas is an app for youngsters that peels again the earlier tropes of social media by specializing in cultivating positivity in a smaller social community.

Gas was launched in August 2022, and based on the Wall Street Journal, Gas was the highest downloaded social media app within the Apple App Store. This is spectacular in and of itself, however is very noteworthy contemplating the app is simply out there in 12 states. Gas says on its website that it will improve with its server capability, however the firm didn’t reply to Gizmodo’s request for touch upon which 12 states have entry to the app or when it’ll broaden to different states.

The essence of Gas sees customers anonymously answering a number of ballot questions like “Who is most likely to dress up as the poop emoji for Halloween?” and “Bodies every new sport they try,” which characteristic their buddies because the choices—the app calls this getting “gassed up.” App customers can gather cash for answering ballot questions, which permit them to unveil who answered sure questions on them and in contrast to different widespread social media apps, there isn’t a capability to direct message different customers.

While anybody can enroll, the app is extra catered towards teen customers, particularly on condition that those that enroll can choose their highschool to create a buddies checklist composed of solely their classmates. Gas claims that location knowledge is simply used as soon as at signal as much as assist customers decide their highschool, and app co-creator Nikita Bier informed the Wall Street Journal that the information just isn’t even saved on the platform’s servers.

Gas seems to be part of a brand new wave of social media apps that emphasize authenticity and smaller social networks—like BeReal, the platform that solely allows you to submit as soon as a day inside a two minute window. In addition to its bare-bones interface and restricted interplay between customers, the questions on Gas all skew constructive, and Gas’s mission is to “create a place that makes us feel better about ourselves,” per their web site. Gas was created by Isaiah Turner, Dave Schatz, and Nikita Bier, the third of which created tbh in 2017, which is an extremely comparable (but now defunct) app.