19 September 2026

Both ways

Why there are no followers on Present, and no likes on posts.

A lot of social media has turned into watching. You follow people who don't follow you back, scroll through their lives, maybe tap a heart, and move on. They never know you were there, and you never actually say anything.

I think that silent watching is one of the worst parts of it. It's where the comparing starts, and it's how you can spend an hour on an app and come away feeling further from your mates than when you opened it.

On Present every connection goes both ways. If you can see someone's posts, they can see yours. There are no followers and there's no audience.

There are no likes on posts either. A like is the easiest way to show you saw something without saying anything at all. Take it away and what's left is a conversation. Every post has messages under it, and your mates can join in or not.

You can still double tap a message to like it. That's how you react to what a mate said in the chat.

Less watching, more talking. That's the whole point of Present.

BrianFounder, Present