Bnter (as in banter or gossip) is based on a fairly farfetched idea: people wanting to share their most private and embarrassing conversations with the general public. This may sound weird, but it definitely has the potential of being extremely funny. Bnter is like Fail Blog meets Twitter meets Texts From Last Night – all rolled into one social networking service.
Before Bnter got its latest update, it was virtually impossible to figure out what the app was actually about. The Market was flooded with comments from users that just could not understand the concept behind Bnter. Thankfully, the people at Bnter took these complaints to heart and added blurbs explaining what Bnter was actually designed for.
At start-up, you’ll be asked to set up a Bnter account by creating a username and providing an email address. Open the registration email to finalize your Bnter account. Upon registration you are redirected to what appears to be a regular social networking app with a profile page, mentions, followers, followed etc.
On the profile page, you can add an avatar and other information you would like to share with other Bnter users. You can also find which of your Facebook friends and Twitter followers are using Bnter, but realistically the chances are pretty slim since Bnter hasn’t really taken off as a service.
On the Home page, you can follow your friends “banter feeds” which appear in the form of cute little comic book bubbles. To create your own Bnter gems, click on Post Convo where you can either directly upload something from your text messages or recreate a real-life conversation you had with someone in a different setting. Importing text messages into your Bnter feed may seem a bit creepy, but it’s very practical for posting those embarrassing messages from a good friend at 2am on a Saturday night.
If you wish to keep the identity of the people involved in a conversation secret, all you have to do is enter fake names when posting a convo. Add tags to your posted conversations so that other Bnter users can find them. Finally, you can share your Bnter convo via Twitter and Facebook.
As in Twitter, all Bnter conversations in which you are mentioned appear in the Mentions rubric. A great way to explore what Bnter users are posting is to search for keywords in the Search section. Be warned that the number of Bnter users and posts is still rather small, so some searches may come up empty. I would suggest trying several different keywords and you’re bound to come across some funny and admittedly awkward conversations.
Bottom Line:
From the makers of Texts From Last Night comes Bnter - a service meant to bring funny, awkward or interesting short conversations to a wider audience. Bnter allows you to post short exchanges between people that don’t fit into a tweet and require too many quotation marks to be a Facebook status. With its use of text bubbles, Bnter provides users with a perfect way to share those priceless moments with friends and family. Whether it’s your 7 year old child, autocorrected text messages or ridiculous conversations you overheard in the subway – Bnter provides a platform for them all. It would all be fine and rosy if it weren’t for one major problem: Bnter remains largely obscure. It has thus far failed to attract a loyal following of users filling the social network with quality – and by quality I mean humorous – content. At this point, Bnter isn’t even close to overtaking such popular gossip sites as Texts From Last Night, Damn You Auto Correct or Overheard in NY. Despite how cool and innovative the concept behind Bnter really is, the app’s features are basically pointless if there aren’t enough users providing new content. So as much as it hurts me to say so: 3 stars is as much as Bnter can get from (unless the service becomes miraculously super popular in the coming months).
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