I moved to Colorado and lost track of my friends.
Not all at once, and not on purpose. I still have every app. My friends back in Florida still have every app. But at some point the feed stopped showing me the people I know and started showing me people who are very good at being on camera.
And it works, that’s the annoying part. I watch. Then I close the app and realize I still have no idea what my friends in Florida are into these days.
That’s not a conspiracy. It’s just what those places are built to do. Somebody who posts four times a day is better for the business than a friend who posts twice a year. I get it. I just don’t want it.
The part that stuck with me
People will tell you about a bad experience forever. The contractor who never showed up. The company that charged them twice and made them call about it four times. Complaints travel fast, and we pass them along without anybody asking.
The good stuff doesn’t move like that. The thing somebody loves, the one they’d put right in your hands, usually stays quiet. Not because they’re hiding it. Nobody asked. And most of us never think to ask.
So Looped asks. Two questions a week, everybody at the same time. You answer before you can see anyone else’s, which keeps people from agreeing with whoever went first. When the next one goes out it opens all at once.
No followers, on purpose
There’s no count to grow here. No ranking, no brands, no sponsored questions, and nobody is paid for what they put in. Once a recommendation earns the person giving it money, it stops being a recommendation. That part I am not moving on.
The piece I care about most is the end of it. You go try the thing, and then you tell the person it worked. That’s the loop, and it’s my favorite part of the whole thing.
I don’t know if this scales, and I’m not sure I want it to. Right now it’s family and a handful of close friends, ten invites each, handed out slowly. If it stays that size and I end up knowing what my friends in Florida are into again, I’ll call that a win.
Joel Pettigrew
What people ask me
- How do you stay in touch with long-distance friends?
- Put it on a clock. The reason I lost track of my friends in Florida wasn't that anyone stopped caring, it's that staying in touch needed somebody to go first every time. Looped sends everyone the same question Sunday and Wednesday, and the answers open at once. Nobody goes first, and nobody has to remember to.
- Is there an app for long-distance friends that isn't a group chat?
- That's what I built Looped to be. A group chat needs somebody to start it and dies when nobody does. Looped asks the question for you, twice a week, and everyone answers before seeing anyone else's. After a month you know what your friend two time zones away is reading, cooking and swearing by.
- I want to quit social media. What do I use instead?
- Something that doesn't try to keep you. I still have every app, and the feed still wins. What I changed was the shape of it: Looped is an appointment, twice a week, with nothing to scroll in between. You keep the friends, you lose the feed, and the app has no reason to want more of your time.
- Does quitting social media mean losing touch with people?
- Not if you replace the one thing the feed was doing. For me that was the only place I heard from certain friends, and the feed had stopped showing them anyway. Looped does that one job on purpose: two questions a week that tell you what the people you'd otherwise lose track of are into now.
If you are here because you are leaving the feed, the comparison with the feed and the group chat is the practical version of this page. No invite yet? The waitlist is one field.