If you’ve been to steemit.com recently, you might be a bit underwhelmed by its pre-Myspace user interface and clunky design.
The unsavory mint green logo doesn’t help matters much either. A full two years after it launched, you will still see the beta tag underneath the Steemit logo on the front page of the website. If you want to search for something on Steemit, good luck. The search function doesn’t really give you what you’re looking for. Steemit has been focusing most of its energy on developing the blockchain tech, not UI.
Steemit Home Page
Luckily, a mobile app has been developed for the Steem blockchain that solves most of these issues, and then some.
I accidentally stumbled upon the Partiko app a few months ago, and was impressed immediately, even though the app was only launched a few months earlier. Usually brand-new apps leave a lot to be desired, but this one completely blew me away. There are still a lot of features yet to be added, but overall, this app is the best performing one for the Steem blockchain.
Partiko has been designed with user happiness at its core, and everything about this app just feels better than any of the others. It’s no surprise to learn that the founder/lead programmer/UI designer used to work for Airbnb in Silicon Valley and has 9 years of programming experience under his belt. Being a power user of this app for several months now, I have a bit of insight into why I think it’s the best mobile experience for the Steem blockchain.
Constant Updates
Software projects are only good if they are constantly being updated with new features, bug fixes and tweaks.
Partiko is constantly doing updates, although I noticed that Android tends to get faster updates than iOS. But Partiko just released an iOS update a few days that adds new features: claim rewards, redeem points for upvotes, new categories for notifications, and some others. The future feature I am most excited about is private messaging, as no other app on the Steem blockchain has it. I think once Partiko has private messaging, even mainstream Facebook users could envision a viable alternative (once people convince their friends and family to migrate).
Intuitive Design
Partiko makes the Steem blockchain incredibly easy to use. In fact, most people who use Partiko wouldn’t be able to tell they are using a blockchain at all. The only part of the process that’s different from a mainstream app is the log in system. Everything else feels very similar to modern apps. The user interface is simple, utilitarian and elegant. The icons are aesthetically appealing and simple to use. One of the best features of this app is its notification system. Partiko tells you when someone has replied to your post or comment in real-time, and also tells you when someone has mentioned your name anywhere on the Steem blockchain. It’s this notification system that makes Partiko a really useful social app. And instant messaging is already available on Android, and coming soon for iOS. No other Steem app has private messaging.
One thing to improve: when you click on a user’s name (for example, @cleverbot), Partiko should be able to take you to the user’s profile within Partiko, not take you out of the app onto Steemit.com.
Speed
Partiko is just as fast as other mainstream social apps like Twitter or Facebook. While browsing with the Partiko app, you won’t even know you’re on a blockchain. This is kind of a big deal because most blockchain apps can be a bit sluggish. One of the reasons Partiko is faster is because it’s been built using native Android and iOS programming languages. This means that two separate applications are being continuously developed, which takes more time but creates a much smoother user experience. All activities are fast including displaying feeds, uploading photos, writing posts, comments, voting and resteeming content.
One thing to improve: ability to display content from other mobile apps like Steepshot on iOS.
Search Tool
A really good feature in Partiko is its search tool. When you search for something, you can select either Posts or Accounts. This search tool enables you to find topics of articles you’re interested in or specific account names. When you search for a particular topic, a list of articles appears with that word in the title. This search function is much better and faster than the one in Steemit.com.
One thing to improve: the ability to get search results based on time sequence and popularity.
Gamified Point System and Leaderboard
When you log into Partiko every day, you receive 10 points. Commenting, posting, resteeming and voting are all actions that Partiko gives you points for doing. These points can be exchanged for upvotes, which results in you earning crypto. While the amount is not huge, it is something. For example, I just redeemed 7488 points and received a $.37 upvote. I think in order to keep scammers away, the amount of upvote can remain small. If it was too much of an amount, the number of scammers would quickly overwhelm the Partiko ecosystem.
Partiko also contains a Leaderboard section in the app which shows the top 20 users according to points earned. The competitive, gamified aspect of this app is what keeps people engaged and motivated to keep using Partiko. And being able to convert social energy directly into a little bit of crypto earnings is a definite plus. You’re not going to get filthy rich using Partiko, but for social media power users, this app is super useful.
Customer Service
One of the biggest sore spots in the crypto space is the lack of customer support services.
This is partly due to the fact that the crypto market is so new. There are countless stories of people submitting a ticket to a crypto exchange, and not getting a reply to their issue for over 6 months, if ever.
Partiko’s support team is exceptional when it comes to helping users and getting their issues resolved in a timely manner. Their discord channel is the place where most users get the support they need: https://discordapp.com/invite/N7Et97G. Additionally, the Partiko team also answers users directly in chats that occur on the Steem blockchain itself. This is known as “eating your own dog food,” which essentially means using your own product while interacting with your customers, resulting in better comprehension of user experience.
When browsing through the user feedback on the Google Play store, there are a few stories about users first giving a 3 star review, then changing it to five stars after their technical problem was resolved by a Partiko team member in the Discord channel.
Check out Partiko:
Partiko website: https://partiko.app/
Download Partiko Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.partiko.android
Download Partiko iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/partiko/id1401033260
Blog: https://steemit.com/@partiko
Discord Support: https://discordapp.com/invite/N7Et97G
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PartikoTeam