Thousands of people have signed up to a new social network where members “lick” and “sniff” one another — all in the name of kindness.
The founders of Petzbe — a “no-humans allowed” app where you adopt the persona of your cat or dog — believe we are much nicer when we are focused on our pets and interacting with other animal-lovers.
They believe that ordinary social media has become a playground for trolls and egomaniacs, packed with nasty comments, politics and photos of other people’s dinners.
Users of Petzbe only post photos or videos of their pets (“themselves”), with first-person captions. They can “lick” (like) each other’s pictures, “sniff” (follow) other pets and chat with each other, sometimes in animal dialects from internet memes.
Real-world human problems are shared, but only through the pets’ perspective. One “dog” posted that “my mom got dumped and I won’t be posting for a while”. This prompted other “pets” to commiserate, with stories of break-ups their human “parents” had been through.
Andrea Nerep, co-founder of the app, said that when she moved from Sweden to New York four years ago she realised that strangers were much friendlier when her dog was with her.
She said: “Petzbe provides the social and psychological benefits of belonging to a community that’s funny, positive, genuine and supportive.
“There’s no room to be judgmental or cynical, as being the friendly animal-lover you are is what matters in our community — nothing else.”
Its members include the tabby-Siamese mix Nala Cat and her siblings, who already have a following of more than five million people on Instagram.
One user wrote in a review on Apple’s app store: “I’ve wasted three years swiping on Tinder. Now that this app has been released, I can finally delete that dumb app . . . Done with humans —https://twitter.com/JenGriffinFNC/status/984075768438427649 I choose Petzbe!”
