Facebook has (quietly) launched a new app aimed squarely at couples. And, while a great idea in practice, the company could have done a little more work when it came to naming said app. Called Tuned, it’s “[a] private space where you and your significant other can just be yourselves”, according to the app’s description.

The problem is the name. If you told a friend that you’d just Tuned a significant other, you’d probably be due for a slap in the head. Especially if you’re from KZN. What can we say, regional differences? That’s not the only problem with the app, either. It’s… largely pointless. Everything Tuned is selling is possible elsewhere. And yet, it seems rather charming.

Tuned, ek sê

Everything that Tuned offers its users is possible using WhatsApp and Facebook. Users can share Spotify songs, update a scrapbook together, send photos, voice notes, or use stickers and reactions. That’s… not really a novelty. What is novel is the idea of a social network of two. With Tuned, it’s just the blissfully mushy pair sending soppy messages (and this is important) without needing validation from their wider circle of friends for doing so.

Tuned is the creation of the NPE Team, or New Product Experimentation Team, according to the website The Information. The department is tasked with creating new social media products, which will (eventually) be rolled into the greater Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp behemoth if history is any indication.

In the meantime, Tuned is actually a cute idea. A couple communicating in their own space without the intrusion of anyone from nosy moms-in-law, jealous exes, or that one guy who just never got over being turned down that one time? That sounds like a pretty good place to be. Plus, this way, Facebook’ll be able to harvest data about couples in action and not just individuals.

Source: The Information