"Tome is Home."
This has been the motto of the app since I first discovered its existence. I first learned about Tome right before the TikTok ban was supposed to happen in January - and they were smart to capitalize on the fear the BookTok community had. They created a way to pre-save your username and pre-follow any of your followers, leading many people to be prepared for when the video app shut down.
And despite the app being darkened for less than twenty-four hours, the idea of building a digital community space for book lovers only had already sparked the idea of what so many readers have been looking for: connection.
The app itself is very reminiscent of MySpace - allowing each user to create and decorate their own profile. Each month there are profile competitions on the app, encouraging users' creativity to shine as they customize how it looks. And I will admit, I went and made all of my collection headers in Canva to try and beautify my profile. And I can't wait for spring break so I can up my game and make it look exactly how I want to.
The app itself has three different feeds: new, hot, and following. The "new" feed includes posts from every user, in the order they were posted in - and despite there being a lot of users, this feed is very loved. It's wonderful for allowing people to meet other small users, see what everyone is reading, and meet new friends - the purpose of the app! The "hot" feed is where you can see the different posts that are trending - based on comments, likes, and collections (where you repost something into your feed).
In the first month, there were some hiccups: on launch day the servers crashed from over a hundred thousand people trying to sign up and login within the first hours of the launch. Before it was split into three feeds, the "hot" feed replaced the "new" feed (then called the "everyone" feed) with glitches that made almost everyone have a teapot post at the top of their feed for days. The books you can add to your posts were imported from Google Books, which has proven to be very disheartening for indie authors and readers of indie books. In addition, the app is only available for IOS, though international and Android versions of the app have been announced and are in development before launch day.
However, one of the things that's important, especially this early in an app's launch, is how the developers take feedback. During the server crash, they tried to update users every 15 or so minutes in the discord, while also letting excited readers the dimensions of what their collections posts would look like so they could start to work on the things they would customize before they could get in. With the feed issue, they listened to how much users enjoyed the "everyone" feed and made the "hot" feed something else entirely. And every week they have a town hall that explains the updates and fixes they have added to the app, and their plans for continued improvement. The developers of Tome have made it clear their priority is listening to their users and that is one of the most heartening things I have seen from app developers.
Despite all the regular first-month hurdles, I have been so impressed with the way the bookish community is growing on Tome. It's such a fun and creative little app, and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to talk about books, share book memes, or overall have a community where books are always at the center. The developers have talked about how they truly wanted to make a social media app that was specific to readers, and in my opinion, they delivered. And I can't wait to see how it grows from here.
You can sign up for Tome for free, and if you feel like adding me, my Tome username is @author-ashleyskolrud