How's SLOWLY penpal experience these days?

September 7, 2024

An important topic — glad it is being discussed

Yesterday a new topic was created on our subReddit, which is shown in the image above. The theme of the topic is how is the current pen pal experience in SLOWLY app – and we have various other commentary in the sub recently about it.

It got views and comments, including an excellent one by ZT1604, which I supported, agreeing with all they wrote. Russian Cousin suggested it could be a good Guest Author post here, I asked for permission, which was granted. So, here it is. 🙂 Thank you, ZT!

The topic's original poster asked:

I uninstalled Slowly last year, been there for a while but got burned out from introducing myself over and over. So how is Slowly these days? Can you share your experiences lately? Is it still a good app?

Hello! Let me preface my comment by saying that SLOWLY today isn't the same as it used to be, for many reasons.

I've been on the app since 2021 and as such I've seen it evolve and decay over the years. Over that time, I've had countless pen-pal stories, some of them super joyful, others very painful.

I got to say my highest usage period was late 2022 – early 2023, and back then, you could still get decent pen-pals and letter exchanges. The truth is that the userbase on this app has been dwindling for a while now.

The pandemic was certainly its golden age, but ever since then, ever since people returned to normalcy, this app has been on a steady downfall as far as its user pool is concerned.

The current experience

Now, in 2024, SLOWLY is a bit different. First off, you have the so-called Open Letter feature, which basically is a letter that you shoot into the app waiting for it to be replied by anyone who manages to stumble across it.

SLOWLY has been trying hard to make this otherwise niche feature into a staple in the app, and so more and more users are giving it a try. The feature is quite half-assed, though, so your mileage might vary. You might get a lot of replies or none at all. You might get a few quality letters or many spam or low-effort letters.

Either way, it's a feature that still requires some tuning to be truly effective and satisfying, but when the right conditions of the algorithm and the target audience are met, coupled with your letter being based around just the right topic, it does work.

The newer users

Then, there's the users. Most of the committed pen-pals in the app are long gone at this point, leaving behind a plethora of dead or paused profiles with very abysmal sent-received ratios.

Instead, the new fashion of SLOWLY user nowadays is increasingly low-effort compared to the users who used to take it more passionately, and the prevalence of AI-written letters is increasingly common. As such, finding actual long-term letter exchanges can be incredibly challenging nowadays.

It's still possible, but it requires a lot of luck, whether it's via Open Letter or good ole' manual search. As for my own recent experiences, I've had fewer and fewer of them, and right now, it's taking me more and more time to even find one profile with whom I can exchange letters with reliably.

I still have faith and love for the concept, so I'll stay for now, but it'd lie if I say the experience was still as exciting as it was during the pandemic years or even in late 2022.

Regarding SLOWLY's development and Support

Finally, a thing which hasn't changed at all is the app's atrocious level of support by its developing team.

I personally harbor no ill against the developers, but its direction has been half-assed and doesn't really take into account the users' long list of suggestions that might improve the user experience, as well as of course, the complaints about the gripes many users have, including technical problems, a very deficient and barebones desktop web browser client, an obsessive and almost religious focus on providing more and more stamps instead of adding another exciting twist to the formula, etc.

We all really hope things eventually improve, but if you read this subreddit's several posts about the matter, you'll find a mix of foolish idealism that things will get better, mixed with the dreadful frustration of realizing that it's not going to be anytime soon.

SLOWLY is still a unique concept and has a good chunk of remaining potential. It's just that the developing team's direction is not capable or willing to evolve things and keep it up with time.

Conclusion?

And so, this has been my overall experience with SLOWLY. Is it still a unique app? Yes, it is. Is it still the same as before? No, it is not. Is it still a good app? That's up to you to decide.

ZT1604

I enjoyed reading ZT's comment, and added a short comment of my own. It's spot on, and thanks to Russian Cousin's suggestion, it's now here as well. Thank you, both!

Famous Last Words

Special thank you to all the folks behind the SLOWLY app.

Letters we share, with pen pals all over the world. A modern day take in the traditional penpal experience. Come and join us, using SLOWLY.

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