By Riley Medina
I stumbled across Sincerely by chance. A safe place to share your secrets, questions, struggles, deep thoughts, emotions, and untold stories, the spiel rattled on. It was one of those immediate downloads. When something in our monkey brain urges us to consume, click, devour. The app’s prompt itself seemed to speak to something animal in me, that craving for human connection. It’s the answer to a question no one ever asks, where should we put the feelings too intimate to share with our closest friends?
For three months, I’ve walked around with strangers’ secrets buzzing in my pocket. It works like this: every night at 10 pm you receive three anonymous letters. The words sprawl across the screen, swift and mechanical, and you are given an option either to react or respond (I’m particularly fond of the latter). In exchange, you are free to type out a letter yourself – be it short, long, nonsensical – and sign it in pseudonym. To date, I have written nine-thousand, nine-hundred and ninety-six words.
Jan 1, 2023
Dear reader,
The best way to get in control of your life is to throw everything out and clean. It’s one of those things that you hate until it’s done. One of those things you need so that you can do something else.
Otherwise, I’m craving carrot cake.
Bug
The app is refreshingly unobtrusive. Peaceful in its white and orange color scheme… minimal. It’s a platform that runs on anticipation, stark in contrast to today’s plague of red notification bubbles, and the endless ping. Instead, Sincerely is driven by the human desire for confession. It runs on the belief that deep down, we all want to help each other. Admittedly, I even turned my notifications off, finding them superfluous. Every night, at 10, I open the app without fail.
Jan 2, 2023
Dear reader,
I think I’m falling out of love. Is that even possible??? I read once that we leave relationships because we think we can pursue something better. But we can’t. I want to love her but can’t help noticing every little mistake she makes. Can anyone relate?
Hopeless
Operating largely like its own private universe, the app is very different from other ‘social’ media. It’s not a place to make friends, or cultivate your life in pictures. You can learn someone’s entire life story and never know their name. Upon first glance, Sincerely is strikingly void of any artificial, ‘social’ aspect. But, paradoxically, it is among the most intimate social apps I’ve ever seen.
Jan 3, 2023
Dear reader,
My mom has been an alcoholic for years now. She was sober for a year but just started drinking again. It’s so hard to see your parent struggle knowing you can’t do anything to help them. It hurts to know she will always choose drinking over me.
Hunni
My first letter was typed out like it was hot to the touch. I wrote it and released it, eager to see what would happen, waiting with bated breath for my first response. As a long term journal keeper, I found Sincerely to capture that same verbal catharsis. One might even say that the app has an advantage over the traditional diary entry, due to the fact that the journal writes back. The process was intoxicating, thrilling, dangerous. Just five days after I hit download, I reached out to the creator.
Q: Who is Zibo Gao?
A: I’m born and raised in China, came to the US for high school, and studied econ/psychology at Columbia in NYC. Music is my first love – I play a lot of instruments, had a rock band, worked on a few music products, and interned at a record label. I’m really interested in building products that can make people smile when they use it. Admittedly, I’m probably a workaholic and working is a “hobby” of mine.
Q: Where did the idea for this project come from?
A: I was kinda depressed after my last app failed and I picked up journaling, which helped me a lot. Then I read a book called “Namiya’s General Store”, in which an old Japanese guy runs a general store and receives anonymous letters and gives advice. There’s some time-travelling involved and a few separate stories… but they are in fact all related. Main message: any words that you say to a stranger can have a profound impact somewhere, somehow, sometime, on someone. I thought that was cool and designed Sincerely.
Q: Do you interact with the letters yourself? If so, what have you learned from them?
A: Yes, I read the letters every day and reply to all three. My biggest learning is that: people who are hurt are often the most loving. Many of the “vent” letters I got would end with good wishes for whoever is reading it. Many great pieces of advice I’ve gotten are from people who are struggling themselves. I’ve always been kinda pessimistic about human nature, but I’m now in the camp of “humans are kind”.
Q: One thing that I find particularly striking about Sincerely, are the concepts of pseudonym and complete anonymity. It feels reminiscent of the early internet. In a social atmosphere where complete exposure and vulnerability online is the norm, what inspired you to go in this direction?
A: I’m a fairly private person and I never liked posting on IG or Snap. I’m also quite sentimental. I love Gas and how it uses anonymity among an existing friend group, but my personality/life experiences just won’t enable me to build in that direction. For me to use Sincerely myself, it has to be anonymous. Of course it brings a new set of issues, but I believe there are many who feel the same.
Q: Your other projects (Touchgrass, Decibel.fm, Stanly, and Offbeat) all have a very distinct identity. What is your goal in creating these community-based spaces for a younger generation?
A: I think I’m building for the introverts… those who might not have 1k followers on IG or pretty pics to post all day. I couldn’t find a product that I really enjoy. They are all really “loud” if you know what I mean… There are other aspects in life that people relate to, let it be emotions, music, plants, writing, thoughts… I just want to build something great there.
Q: Many people talk about the app improving their mental health, or making them feel less alone. Did you expect there to be such a positive reaction to Sincerely?
A: Yes – I knew people would use it to vent and seek advice. No – I did not expect the overwhelming feedback on “reading/responding to letters makes me feel less lonely”. So at this point, I believe the app is really for people to be seen, heard, and valued.
In many ways, Sincerely feels like the start of something new. It signals a change in tide, a rejection of artifice and empty likes. With a simple, yet striking concept, Sincerely continues to hold my attention sans marketing ploys. Amidst these oversaturated times in which there can be so much cause for pessimism, I take comfort knowing that every night at 10 pm, strangers from around the world band together in the name of benevolent truth.
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