7 September 2026

Two loops

Why other feeds keep getting worse, and why Present goes the other way.

Most social apps are stuck in a loop.

They need more content to keep you scrolling, so they fill your feed with posts from people you don't know. More content means more slop. More slop means the good stuff is harder to find, so they need a smarter algorithm to sort it. To win that algorithm, content has to get more addictive, so there's more of it, it gets worse, and round it goes.

Present runs the opposite loop.

There's only what your mates have posted, so there's nothing to sort. With nothing to sort, you just see your mates and what they're up to. When you've seen it, the feed ends, so you spend less time on the app.

And because nobody's competing for attention, nobody posts to win anything. People share what they actually want their mates to see. That makes the feed better, which means you need even less of it.

Less content, better content, less time on your phone. That's the loop I want to be in.

BrianFounder, Present