Path – the social network you never knew about, but wished you had.

Connor James Ibbetson, Editor-at-large
@connoribbetson

The little known Social media network of that once competed with Facebook is set to shut down for good.

Social media, some see it was a step in human communication and interaction, like a public journal to keep in touch with your friends, others say it is the work of the devil himself.

Whatever your opinion, chances are you have Facebook, or at the very least know someone who has – so you are aware of what it has become. The Facebook of today is very different to what is was even just a few years ago.

Veteran users of Facebook will remember when your home screen was filled with status updates from friends, not just posts from company pages, adverts, and the dreaded fake news.

Before reading this however, you probably never even thought an simple alternative could really exist, but it did.

Path, the social network of simplicity

Path was is a social media network founded in 2010, and was once a serious competitor to Facebook, something that seems unimaginable now.

May be Path is what we all wish Facebook could be.

Path is kind of what a lot of us wish Facebook was more like, more about the friends, simpler.

Path limited you to just 150 connections at a time, meaning you kept only your closest friends connected.

The network also had no company or brand pages, groups or events.

The company said in a blog post, that they have enjoyed the journey of Path.

“We started Path in 2010 as a small team of passionate and experienced designers and engineers,”

“Along our journey we have laughed and cried with you, and learned valuable lessons. And it is now inevitable to wind down the service to prioritize our work to serve you with better products and services.”

The end of the Path, for Path

The shutdown is set to be swift, as of the 1st of October, the app will disappear from online stores, and the termination of service comes just over two weeks later.

– 9.17.2018 : Notice on Path service discontinuation

– 10.1.2018: Unable to download/update the app in iTunes and Google Play

– 10.18.2018: Termination of the Service (Unable to access to Path)

– 11.15.2018: Path related customer service will be closed

It seems a shame, and yet interesting to consider how things could have been different, if a platform such as Path had become dominant over Facebook in the early years of social media.

Would fake news be as much of a problem as it is today, would Path have had a data misuse scandal like Facebook did?

Now, we will never know.