This App Is Secretly Tracking Your Every Move
By 813 Staff
A closely watched product launch reveals This App Is Secretly Tracking Your Every Move, according to Boris Cherny (@bcherny) (in the last 24 hours).
Source: https://x.com/bcherny/status/2034799341429272937
A new social polling app, simply called “Think,” has begun a quiet, invite-only beta test in the San Francisco Bay Area. The app, developed by a startup led by former Twitter and Google engineer Boris Cherny, aims to replace the cacophony of public replies with structured, quantifiable feedback. Internal documents show the core mechanic is straightforward: users post a question or a piece of content, and their network responds not with text, but by sliding scales for attributes like “Agree/Disagree” or “Useful/Not Useful,” with optional anonymous commentary. The goal, according to a project roadmap from late 2025, is to “surface signal, not noise.”
The rollout has been anything but smooth. Engineers close to the project say the initial build struggled with scaling the real-time aggregation of thousands of simultaneous slider responses, leading to delayed data visualization during the first internal stress tests. Furthermore, early design mockups reviewed by 813 indicate significant debate over whether to reveal the identities of voters on specific scales, a feature that was ultimately scrapped to encourage more candid feedback. The current beta, accessible only via invites tweeted by Cherny himself from his account @bcherny, appears to be a technical shakedown as much as a product test. His March 20th post, simply stating “Let us know what you think!” is a literal call to action for this nascent community.
This matters because it represents a tangible shift in a space dominated by engagement-driven outrage and algorithmic amplification of conflict. If “Think” gains traction, it could offer professionals, creators, and teams a tool for gathering nuanced sentiment without the performative aspects of public debate. The potential applications range from product managers testing feature ideas to writers gauging reaction to draft chapters. However, the fundamental challenge remains whether users will migrate from the dopamine hits of likes and fiery quote-tweets to the more analytical, and perhaps less immediately gratifying, process of sliding scales.
What happens next hinges on the data from this limited beta. The team is reportedly monitoring two key metrics: user retention after the initial novelty wears off, and the quality of the optional written feedback compared to traditional comment sections. A broader public launch is tentatively penciled for Q3 2026, but insiders confirm that is contingent on solving the scaling issues and proving that the app fosters a different kind of conversation. The uncertainty lies not in the technology, but in user behavior. The industry will be watching to see if Cherny’s hypothesis—that people want to measure opinion, not just broadcast it—holds true.
