Vine Founder Launches Peach, a Social Network iPhone App

Dom Hofmann, founder of the wildly successful video-sharing iPhone app Vine, has been back in the news the past couple weeks drumming up buzz for a new social networking startup. Peach is an iPhone app developed to capitalize on the success of uber-simple sharing apps like Ello by applying an equally simple mobile messaging interface. While early reviews have been quick to point out the similarities between the Peach interface and Slack, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Like slack, Peach’s iPhone app developers center the UI on a text-input based system that’s one part command line, one part AI assistant. The detects content type with trigger words like “GIF” and “event,” treating the resulting public post accordingly.

One feature that stands out in the app is the commenting and privacy system. Unlike Facebook, all posts are public — but only accepted “friends” can comment. While it’s a clever combination on the part of the company’s iPhone app developers, users are likely to crave more refined privacy controls and customization options. That said, iPhone app market success stories like Snapchat go to show how an excessively simple interface can actually drive growth in the long run. If Peach is able to find a similar audience seeking simple, low-commitment sharing platforms, it could turn out to be a surprise success story.

The app also offers some clever and quirky post types for users, including a “draw” keyword that allows users to scribble a post with their finger right on the screen — sort of like Evernote’s “handwriting” function crossed with Snapchat’s doodle feature. The “song” keyword allows users to simply share whatever audio they’re listening to on their phone.

As with any social networking app launched in the age of Facebook, the real question on London iPhone app developer’s minds is how the platform will stand up in a field heavily dominated by the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

Peach is available for free download in the Apple App Store.