By Tanisum Halim, staff writer
With the commencement of a new school year, a new app, TBH (To be Honest), has also made its debut. This app that lets friends post reviews on each other through anonymous polls quickly became a sensation among high school students. There is a broad range of questions a user can vote on, but they all have one thing in common: positivity and that is no accident.
True to their motto, “The only anonymous app with positive vibes,” TBH is an app especially designed to be nice and promote positivity among the players with questions ranging from “Who has the best smile?” to “Who is likely to become the future president?” Players can suggest their own questions, but they get closely reviewed by the administrators before they can be added to a poll to avoid any kind of bullying and harassment.
“It’s makes my day when people compliment me on the app,” says sophomore Emily Tan who first spotted the app trending in snapchat stories and later became a player.
The signup process requires users to pick their grade level and school so they can join their respective graduating classes. There is also an “Already graduated” and “Not in school” option for those who do not fit in the other categories. The players then authorize access to their contacts which is synced back to the app for better representation of their friends in the poll.
Each time someone is picked in the poll, they either earn a pink gemstone indicating it’s from a girl or a blue gemstone indicating it’s a boy. These gemstones accumulate and allow the players to later unlock more questions and features in the app. The anonymity feature of the app is optional as voters can choose to reveal their identity as they please, but the thrill of speculating is also preferred by many teenagers.
“I feel like the app is very intriguing. The mysterious element of it is to figure out who posted the statement about you. You rarely find out who, but the compliment given keeps everyone happy,” said Sophomore Dino Mulani.
Although TBH is currently only available for iphone users in 37 select states throughout the the U.S, it has already gained 5 million users and positivity seems to be the key to this app’s popularity.
“I would recommend this app to my other friends because it’s fun not only receiving compliments or funny comments, but it’s fun sending them too,” says junior Amisha Saha.
