Gas is an anonymous app targeted towards high schoolers – and while it may seem fun and interactive, it was very short-lived. While somehow managing to surpass BeReal and TikTok in the App Store (for a very short period of time) it was so short-lived that the company has to use fake compliments just to keep “gassing you up”. While the app can’t support bullying with its premade ‘gases’ and also doesn’t have direct messaging, the app can still be misleading. 

First off, to help spread its influence, the app has the option to skip the wait time for another poll by messaging a link to your friends to download the app. To lure you into getting the app while messaging you the link a phrase appears stating either,  “Two Boys and One Girl have voted for you” if you’re a girl or if you’re a boy then it states, “Two Girls and One Boy have voted for you” trying to imply a flirtatious thought in your mind making you feel better about yourself. While it has no serious implications it is a clever marketing tactic. Now let’s say you finally gave in and got the app: Gas then gives you a list of people to add (like every other social media app), and then you start receiving anonymous compliments (Gases) from people in your school or in your contacts list. 

Let’s say you really wanted to know who are these anonymous people, you can purchase something called “God Mode”. This mode lets you reveal 2 names from your inbox of anonymous polls, it lets you get unlimited hints to guess who sent the poll, get 2 times the coins on polls, you get to see who might like you, secret alerts for someone adding their name to your poll (usually your crush), and even if someone else has “God Mode” they can’t see if you voted for them. All of this for the horrible price of $7.99 a week (it’s been 30% off for about a month now). Quite frankly it’s made for people who are extremely desperate. Now let’s say it’s your time to vote, you complete the 12 pre-made questions with 4 option choices which you can shuffle for better choices for a total of 12 options, or you can skip the question. After you complete the poll, you get coins, just like a game, for which you can purchase rewards. These include getting your name on 3 random polls and putting your name in your crush’s poll. 

While even an idiot can decide that Gas is very desperate for people to keep using the app there’s more to it. While “God Mode” has been at a 30% discount for roughly a month now, Gas adds anonymous names to your inbox. While there is no apparent downside and it actually makes you feel better about yourself, it’s a dirty tactic. The app adds “Gases” into your inbox which are apparently from people who have “God Mode”, well I’m sorry to tell you it’s a LIE! Using a fake account I set up, one of the first “Gases” I received was from a person with God Mode (which everyone receives). I then asked most of the people I added to the account if they had “God Mode” and they all said no. I then proceeded to ask most of my contacts list of people who would vote for me and not a single one said yes. Then the same thing happens when you step away from the app to gain your attention it says people have voted for you and most of those people have “God Mode”.

Another thing they do to lure you is the notifications they give – which differ whether it’s from a boy or a girl and if you are a boy or a girl. For example, if you are a girl and you get a notification from a boy the notification symbol is a heart on fire and if it’s from a girl it’s just a normal heart. As stated by Dictionary.com, “The Heart on Fire emoji ❤️‍? depicts a flaming heart. It can be used to represent passionate love (“burning love”) or intense liking of something.” It also vice versa for the guys. 

While this may seem like one lengthy customer service complaint that a Karen would leave, it is just the truth. Personally, I don’t dislike the Gas app. It’s an innovative idea. At first, I thought it would turn out like the movie “Untraceable”. But so far, the app has just died out in the span of its very short popularity. While it helps a lot of people’s confidence and supplies a good amount of healthy fun, it’s addicting, like every other social media to ever exist. I don’t think it will come back heading into 2023, but who knows – maybe somebody still wants to get gassed up.