Path’s Consistency Of Tone

Admittedly, I have a negative bias towards overhyped startups. If a company gets a lot of attention before they do anything significant, I’m less likely to try their product and when I do, less likely to have a positive feeling about it. I realize this is a weakness I need to overcome, but it’s the way my mind works.

There are few better examples over the past few years of overhyped startups than Path. Two years ago the company, after much uber-super-duper-stealth-mode speculation, launched a sub-par photo-sharing product that offered little utility over the other products in the space. Then, Path turned down a rumored $100m acquisition, again, before they’d released anything worth buying (except the team).

So I’m choosing a very public place to admit the following: after using the new version of Path since November, I believe it is one of the best mobile products I’ve ever used and possibly the best true social network I’ve ever been a part of.

Realizations like this don’t come easy and it’s led me to think a lot recently about why the network appeals to me so much. After all, I learn more from Twitter and have more friends on Facebook. One would think the value of those social networks would outweigh Path. And maybe their overall value does. But there’s something very different about Path. Something special that makes my Path experience much richer than the other social networks.

Consistency of tone

The conclusion I’ve come to is what makes Path so special isn’t its limited friend count. It’s not its beautiful design (which I dug into a few months ago). What I’ve realized is so special about Path for me is the consistency of tone.

When I open Path, I’m seeing experiences people are having. Some of those experiences are checking into a new place. Some are posting a photo. Some are listening to music. Some are going for a run. But for the most part, they’re all experiences. And they all have a common tone, meaning they all feel like part of the same story. Everyone has their own storyline, but together, everyone’s moments merge together into a consistent shared biography.

Original source here.