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Push it jumps to No. 1 on App Store promising a way to send push notifications to friends

A new app called Push it is sitting at the top of the App Store promising little more than the ability to send “push notifications to your friends.” The app features only two screenshots — one of a big red button and another basic, black-and-red screen with text that says “sending.” So what is going on here? And how is this app No. 1 in five countries when many people who install it can’t even use it yet?

As it turns out, Push it is the latest creation from the makers of the Snapchat platform app, Sendit, which features AR games and anonymous Q&As. To understand what Push it is all about, you have to first understand the company’s original app, Sendit. Popular with a younger demographic, Sendit has been steadily gaining traction with Snapchat users who use the app to play games and have conversations with their Snapchat friends. To date, Sendit has been downloaded nearly 9 million times worldwide and has generated nearly $3 million in consumer spending, according to Sensor Tower data. The app recently gained millions of new installs following Snap’s suspensions of Sendit’s top rivals, YOLO and LMK, which were the focus of a lawsuit from a mother whose son died by suicide after being anonymously bullied by users of those apps. Sendit has, so far, escaped a similar fate despite offering anonymous features of its own — like its “ask me anything” game, which prompts a Snapchat user’s friends to ask questions without revealing who they are. Some of Sendit’s negative reviews also make mention of bullying, but Snap has yet to take action. When we asked Snap to detail its policy around anonymous apps aimed at minors, we were told the company is in the process of reviewing its app ecosystem and policies, following the hire of its first global head of platform safety. In addition, some of Sendit’s users believe the app is using bots to post questions that their friends would have never asked. Writes one user in an App Store review: “This app randomly sends you fake/automated questions. For example, me and all of my friends are mid-20s and older and we’ve all gotten the same question about ‘do u have trust issues,’ ‘who’s the best person to copy homework from?’ Another reviewer complains: “Ok so I can tell that the questions are 100% not from anyone I know, in fact I’m pretty sure this is fake. I’m convinced that the questions are from AI. They are just random cheap questions that nobody would ask like “who would you choose to be on your team in a zombie apocalypse?” Like that’s stupid. Nobody just asks that. Make a real app.” Sendit’s founder Hunter Rice denies that bots are involved. He also pushed back at the idea that Sendit’s adoption by teenagers is being driven by anonymity. “Our users gravitate towards Sendit because of its awesome AR experiences,” Rice explains. “Our mission, and what we’re looking to do, is to find new ways to reduce the friction of sparking conversations with friends. We discovered this really engaging format through these AR games. That’s really the magic behind Sendit and why it’s been so successful,” he says. Today, Sendit offers games like “Never Have I Ever,” “Truth or Dare” and others that appeal to a young crowd. It also lets users ask questions like “Who do you ship me with?” or “Confessions — say who you have a crush on,” and “Compatibility test,” which reflect the kinds of things that a teenager would want to chat about among friends. Similarly, Rice says his team’s new app Push it is also about coming up with new ways to encourage conversations. Except, in this case, it’s not promising AR Lens games and Q&As for Snapchat, but a basic tool for pushing notifications directly to friends’ iPhones.