Taylor Swift’s new app stole my emoji idea and hours of my life

The Swift Life, Taylor Swift’s new social networking app, is founded entirely on two simple ideas. The first is that her fans go balls-to-the-wall bonkers whenever Taylor “notices” them on social media by blessing them with a like, share, or comment. As a hardcore devotee who has virtually interacted with the pop star a grand total of three times over the course of a decade, I can confirm this obsession as fact; a few years ago, when she retweeted my praise for Ryan Adams’ full-album cover of 1989, I had the moment immortalized in needlepoint.

Which brings me to the second idea: Taylor’s diehard fans are, as her “long list of ex-lovers” would all call her, insane — they obsessively pick apart and parse her words, and they’ll do absolutely anything to get onto their idol’s radar. Why else would we download yet another social app? Because Taylor told us to, of course.

And because for the past year, Swift fans haven’t heard nearly enough from Taylor on social media — save for on Tumblr, a largely fan-driven platform where she can reblog fan art and comment on lyrical theories and inside jokes without inciting the wrath she often encounters other social sites. To a lesser degree, she’s active on Instagram; in the weeks leading up to the release of her latest album, Reputation, Taylor occasionally commented on fans’ Halloween costumes and popped into their live streams.

Photo: Glu

Basically, The Swift Life combines everything Taylor likes about those two platforms (the fans, the memes, the emoji) and gets rid of everything she doesn’t. (Drama, which she swears she doesn’t love, it just loves her.) Then it throws in a whole bunch of cartoon cats for good measure. She launched the app in the US on her birthday, December 13th, and it’s currently available for iPhone and iPad; Google Play is coming “soon.” (Sorry, Android users, but considering Taylor once voluntarily face-planted on a treadmill for Apple, you probably should’ve seen that one coming.)

As part of the target demographic for this app, as someone who’s spent most of the past week entirely ignoring My Actual Life in favor of living The Swift Life, I can share that the app is moderate to majorly addicting for serious Taylor fans. It is not, however, for casual listeners. Honestly, it’s probably not meant for you unless, at some point in your life, you’ve opened Instagram and thought, “You know what’d be cool? If literally, every photo in my feed was of Taylor Swift.”

TSL is the latest launch from Glu, the company responsible for Kim Kardashian: Hollywood and Katy Perry Pop. (Ironically, those two stars are TSwift’s alleged nemeses. But to be fair, I’d happily work with my enemy’s business partner too, if it meant I might make $40 million in three months flat.) Unlike both those apps, though, TSL isn’t a game — not exactly. It’s more of a photo-sharing social community that just happens to feature ranks to climb and virtual currency to gather — all with the ultimate goal of getting noticed by the actual, real-life Taylor Swift, who occasionally interacts with fans through the app.

Taylor Swift is a kind of super-user on the site: anything she double-taps gets a heart-shaped “Taylor Like” sticker and a spot on Taylor’s own Swift Life photo feed. But those stickers aren’t easy to come by. On the day I downloaded the app, around 2,500 fans had already reviewed it, suggesting a broad user base was already in place, but there was around 16 “Taylor Likes” total. It wasn’t a particularly promising ratio. A week later, there are closer to 8,000 reviews… and about 20 total likes from Taylor. (Note that I’m not including reshares here since it’s unclear whether those come from Taylor, her management team Taylor Nation, or the app’s own staff. “Taylor Nation Like” and “The Swift Life Like” stickers also exist.)

Photo: Glu

One way to increase the chance of Taylor seeing your post is to have other users leave you “SwiftSends,” tiny paper airplane emojis identical to the pendants she and Harry Styles wore when they dated. The catch is that the app allows users precious few of these in the first place, and it takes for-freaking-ever to earn more. So you really have to make your posts stand out in order to get SwiftSends from the rest of the community. Illustrations, collages, and moving personal stories seem to amass these fastest.

Unfortunately, I possess the painting skills of your average 5-year-old, so I decided to share a photo of myself on the “Look What You Made Me Do” throne from last month’s Reputationpop-up shop instead. This got more likes on TSL than it did on my Instagram feed — but sadly, only two SwiftSends. Two! So much for Taylor ever seeing it. The second photo I shared, of my “Look What You Made Me Do” Halloween costume (for which I braved the terrifying Times Square Toys R Us flagship in order to find a stuffed snake), failed to earn a single SwiftSend. And when I tried to shout out The Verge’s sister site Racked to a nice commenter who asked where I worked (I’d introduced myself as “a writer/editor from NYC”), I received a warning message a few hours later — probably because the app thought I was dropping spam links.

Photo: Glu

Confused, I paused on posting content and set off to collect Taymoji instead. Quick aside here: Back in June 2016, I wrote a piece for Racked wondering why Taylor didn’t have her own custom emoji set yet, à la Justin Bieber’s Justmoji and Amber Rose’s MuvaMoji. I even enlisted Curbed’s Michelle Goldchain to design a few examples of potential “Taymoji.”Because of this, I’m going to choose to believe that Taylor reads Racked and that I play a crucial role in all her business-decision-making processes. And also that maybe I deserve upgraded seats at next summer’s Reputation tour or something.

How many Taylor Swift-themed emoji could possibly exist in this, the year of our Lord 2017? Hundreds, and here’s why: 29 of Taylor’s hit singles each have an entire eight-piece Taymoji “pack” associated with them. Each of the tiny cartoons is inspired by a Taylor lyric or music video moment — so in the “Blank Space” pack, for instance, you’ll find a tiny Taylor on horseback and a bleeding, heart-shaped cake. (Sadly, she didn’t turn her mascara-streaked sob-face into a Taymoji, as Michelle and I suggested last year). The “Shake It Off” pack, meanwhile, features a little boombox and a tutu-clad Taylor busting some dorky moves. (The latter could’ve easily been inspired by the Taymoji we designed of Taylor dancing awkwardly at the ACM Awards. Again, just sayin’!)

Anyway, one way to get Taymoji is by liking other users’ photos; each time you double-tap, you’re rewarded with a silver, bouncing music note. Sounds stupid, but it’s a surprisingly effective Pavlovian strategy, and I actually got grumpy when I liked some regular photos on Instagram and nothing happened. (If I’m gonna like all those literally identical photos of your new baby, I deserve something in return!)

Collect enough music notes, and you’ll “unlock” new Taymoji, which you can keep, or post on other people’s photos. At first, I was tempted to hoard all the Taymoji I’d earned for myself, because they’re cute, and I am selfish. But I quickly learned that only by giving away my Taymoji would I earn more followers and likes of my own. Clearly, Taylor has read Marcus Pfister’s The Rainbow Fish, the award-winning children’s book about the importance of sharing!

Photo: Glu

Collecting Taymoji and interacting with other fans and their content presumably helps you level up, although the exact rules for advancement in the app are murky. When you first download TSL, you start out as a Rookie, but you can ascend through four ranks: Fan, Super Fan, Swiftie, and Super Swiftie. (Slightly annoying, since if you download and use an app devoted solely to Taylor Swift, you are, by definition, already a Super Swiftie.)

At first, it’s easy to climb the ranks; by my second day using the app, I’d already graduated to Fan status. But my momentum soon slowed. Several days and hundreds of likes later, I haven’t made much additional progress — and a couple of well-meaning Reddit guides attempting to break down the app’s surprisingly complicated economy left me even more confused. (Apparently, there are also stars involved?! From the conversations going on around this app, it’s clear I’m not the only one struggling to parse how all the different in-game currencies interact.)

And here’s where TSL’s free-to-download, pay-to-advance setup comes into play; fans can buy bundles of guitar picks — the app’s most valuable form of currency — to help them level up faster. Having read plenty of horror stories about Kim Kardashian: Hollywood users who accidentally spent hundreds of dollars on the game, I obsessively checked my credit card balance while using The Swift Life, in periodic fits of financial paranoia. (Because honestly, between merch, music downloads, and Reputation tour tickets, this woman’s already claimed enough of my coins in 2017.) Luckily, no surprise $100 charges yet!

Those who prefer to earn picks without draining their wallets can watch short video ads for 10 picks per view, but you’re only allowed to do this five times in a 24-hour period. (Sad news for those of us who watched Taylor eat cookie dough hundreds of times for a better shot at tour tickets.) The only other way to get them is by leveling up — which, again, takes a long-ass time, and it’s not entirely clear how it happens. Guess I’ll just keep liking and leaving Taymoji on my favorite posts — mostly watercolors, Star Wars mashups, and anything defending net neutrality — in the hopes of climbing the ranks the good old-fashioned freeway.

Photo: Glu

Besides seemingly being the sole way to level up, there’s another reason those guitar picks are so important. They’re the only way you can do the absolute best thing in this entire app: Buy cats. Specifically, tiny animated versions of Dr. Meredith Grey and Detective Olivia Benson, Taylor’s own Scottish Folds. The cats make occasional cameos as you click on the app, but if you purchase them, they’ll permanently purr nap, and pad around on your profile page. They also apparently help you get more Taymoji — but honestly, I just want them because they’re freaking cute. So cute, in fact, that the first time they surprise-crawled across my phone screen, I emitted a strange guttural noise loud enough to wake my sleeping boyfriend. (It was 1 a.m. Since I downloaded TSL, my bedtime has drifted later every night.) But honestly, who in her Neopet-loving mind could resist these things?

Photo: Glu

I get that it’s dumb. I also get that I could cough up $22 and buy Meredith and Olivia right this minute, and be done with it. But for now, the goal of adopting these animated furballs without having to fork over any cash is keeping me invested enough in TSL to keep playing.

And that’s the thing: Confusing as the app’s rules are, fans will probably be drawn to The Swift Life for different reasons. Some Swifties will appreciate that it’s a safe space to geek out over their favorite pop star and meet like-minded fans. Others will probably treat it like Pokémon Go with a TSwift twist, leveling up and amassing new Taymoji as quickly as they can. And still, others will prioritize the goal of interacting with Taylor herself.

As a fan who falls squarely into that third category, I’ll probably keep popping into The Swift Life a few times a week to share content, like a few posts, and check in on Taylor’s own feed. Sure, I’ve probably got a better chance at winning the lottery than getting a like or reshare from the star — but my odds on TSL have to be better than on Twitter or Instagram since Taylor now basically only uses those platforms for promotional purposes.

Plus, I still want those cats.

by: theverge