With this free service, it eliminates the need to hunt down a website or phone number for a business. Unfortunately I found that my friends list was nearly vacant, with most users having abandoned the platform long ago.īut with the new Places features, Path Talk may yet become a necessary app on your home screen. Path Talk started off as a companion app to Path, offering messaging features to both Path and non-Path users alike. With most of my messages answered as advertised, it seems like the one hiccup I did experience was an anomaly rather than something you should expect with the service. Upon resending my request I had an answer to my question within a few minutes. In fact, according to the Path agent I talked to, the unanswered message I sent was never received by the service, even though the Read indicator was displayed after I sent the message. Most of my messages resulted in an answer within 5 minutes (the promised turnaround time from Path), but one took several hours for the Path team to get back to me. I sent several messages to local businesses asking questions ranging from, 'What's the special tonight?' to, 'Do you have any Kindle Paperwhites in stock?'

The shortened shelf life is meant to help you feel as though your conversations are private, but it doesn't stop others from taking screenshots to save the conversation (taking screenshots actually recommended on Path's FAQ site as a way to keep conversations). With Path Talk, any messages in your conversations to friends are deleted from the conversation as well as Path's servers after 24 hours.

With the success Snapchat has seen due to its ephemeral approach to messaging, it makes sense for other apps to adopt a similar approach. And adding contacts to Path Talk does not automatically add them to your Path account, where you're likely to want to still have a smaller social circle.

It's nice to see Path do away with friend count limitations for Path Talk, making it possible to chat with as many people as you'd like. The app initially limited your friend count to 50, but after user feedback the limit was later raised to 150. The initial appeal of Path was that it took a smaller, more personal approach to what a social-networking service should be.

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