Fun for the first five minutes
Fun for the first five minutes
Kong is an app that helps you create reaction gifs selfies. The app comes from the creators of Path, the private social network, but you can use Kong to share selfie gifs with any social network or chat app.
Record and share
Kong is a simple app. It looks just like Snapchat, with its big recording button that shows elapsed time with a red ring around the button. Hold onto the button to record yourself for several seconds and that video will be transformed into an animated gif, which you can share with your friends.
Although Path is the developer of Kong, sharing is not limited to its own social network. You can share using Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Google Hangouts, and many more apps. It works great, especially with apps that support animated gifs.
Beyond recording yourself, you can also browse content created by other Kong users. There's a lot of selfies to browse through and they're organized by specific categories, denoted by hashtags. For example, there's a #mondays category which shows people dealing with the dreaded first workday of the week.
What did I get sucked into?
There's a lot of content in Kong but it's a bit frustrating. Browsing by channel works well and I like the themes. Some users post random things to specific channels but that's not a big problem overall. What is a big problem is that you can't share other people's Kongs. All youc an do is view their gifs by swiping left and right. You can like and follow a user but you can't share their reactions, which is a missed opportunity.
I found myself getting sucked into browsing these selfie gifs for five minutes straight before I realized I was wasting my time. And that's exactly what Kong is: a time waster. While it's fun to send personalized selfie gifs to your friends, I find other gifs to be funnier. Plus, you don't have to look like a complete fool in public while taking selfie videos.
Dumb fun
Kong is a great time waster. I love that you can share your creations with a bunch of different apps. I also like how simple it the app is to use. However, Kong does need to include some sort of privacy control so you can control who sees your content. I'd also like to see a way to share other people's Kongs instead of only sharing my own.
Still, if you're one of the brave souls who doesn't mind taking selfies in public, you'll love Kong.
