“What Is Peach?” Our Exclusive Interview With Peach Megastar Jason Flowers

If you are a living person at the dawn of 2016 with an internet connection then you ‘ve probably heard of Peach. If you haven ‘t, then ask your kids,ha ha ha! It ‘s an app. But if you are already on Peach, then you undoubtedly have heard of Jason Flowers (username @jasonflowers). To date, Jason has over one hundred “peachers” who follow his every peach. You could say he ‘s a Peach star ‘ but that doesn ‘t quite encapsulate his importance to the community. He ‘s more of an influencer and leader than he is just a star. A “peacher ‘s peach” if you will. We asked him so sit down, talk through his process, and also tell us what the fuck Peach is.

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Matt Klinman: Jason, thank you so much for agreeing to join us.

Jason Flowers: Sure. Are we sitting?

MK: Yeah, please have a seat.

MK: So, Jason, you are a massive celebrity, star, influencer on the social media platform Peach.

JF: Correct, I would say I ‘m definitely one of the early adopters of it. Got in there. I consider it more of a community of friends. There ‘s no real ‘ none of us are bigger than any other. It ‘s as if you have a friend who has a better job ‘ you don ‘t think of him as, you know, more important than you. You ‘re all a collective.

MK: So, I guess one of the big questions that I have for you is: What is Peach?

JF: Alright, so Peach is a social media platform from, I think, one of the makers of Vine. It ‘s a, sort of a place to gather friends and post sort of your thoughts and Peach makes it easy to post your thoughts in a variety of formats and media. Whereas Twitter only allows you to just type. I guess you can drag a picture in, but you can ‘t really make pictures on Twitter. It sort of combines the best of Tumblr and Twitter and Ello kind of vibe. And like a streamlined thing with your Friends.

MK: With your Friends?

JF: Yeah, it ‘s about Friends.

MK: Do you have a lot of Friends?

JF: I would say in the hundreds of Friends.

MK: Is that the most?

JF: I think I read over the weekend that you max out at 250. I read somebody maxed out at 250. I ‘m not there. Plus, I ‘ve also had to streamline a little just to sort of, like, once we got back into the work flow of the week is like a little much so I had to get rid of a few but I ‘ve got it down to sort of a manageable amount.

MK: An amount where you still have a ton of influence but where it ‘s not a burden on you?

JF: Correct.

MK: So let me ask you a question. You said that you can sort of make things in Peach?

JF: Sure.

MK: It ‘s like Photoshop?

JF: A little bit. It allows, uh ‘ Peach has ‘ Basically ‘ The initial thing when you go to input, set a post, it says “write something.” You have an option to upload a camera or it has like a little lightbulb. It gives you three prompts every day, so today ‘s prompts are “I know I ‘m home when ‘” and then you can elaborate on that. Or ‘Which words or phrases do you overuse? ‘ Just like Thought Starters. But there ‘s also these keywords that are given. So if you type the letter G, it ‘ll prompt you to insert a GIF. And then from the website Giphy, if you type in, say, peach, it ‘ll give you a GIF of a peach. Then you can scroll through a few selections, find one you like.

MK: And that ‘s all from typing in G? What if you just want to type in a G word?

JF: Then you just keep typing.

MK: Keep typing.

JF: Yeah.

MK: OK.

JF: But it also allows you to post the time or what you ‘re watching on TV. Or if you ‘re listening to music, you can put in S for song and it will start listening a la Siri or Shazam, it ‘ll find what song you ‘re listening to and then it will let you post it right there. And then, from Peach, people can listen to it on Apple Music, or Spotify, or whatever. So you can like share your music that you listen to.

MK: So it ‘s a very open-ended platform but in a very directed way?

JF: Yeah.

MK: Does it feel like you ‘re being orchestrated to do things?

JF: I don ‘t think so. It ‘s a very blank canvas and you kind of figure it out. Also, there ‘s no real instructions when you start. I think, when on Twitter, most people ‘s first tweet is “Here ‘s my first tweet. I bet I ‘m gonna regret this.”

MK: Totally, yeah, so embarrassing.

JF: On this, everyone ‘s first Peach is like “What is this app? I don ‘t know what peach is. Why are we Peaching?” And that morphs into Peach puns. Peaching to the choir. Peach for the stars. Hey guys Peach out and touch someone. That kind of stuff.

MK: So a lot of people have been doing Peach puns?

JF: Yeah, and then it emerged into butts. Because the emoji Peach looks like a butt. And so people have been posting pics of their butts all weekend.

MK: So that ‘s like a big meme?

JF: That ‘s a meme.

MK: Have you been participating in a lot of these memes?

JF: Not so many. I ‘m not a big butt poster. But I ‘ve seen some butts, liked some butts. I love to use the Peach meme. The word peach is one of the words you see least on Peach cause people want to use the peach [emoji].

MK: Got it. But you often find it within other words to make puns? Like un-be-peachable?

JF: Yeah, exactly.

MK: Right. Let me ask you this, how did you know when you were an above-average user?

JF: I would say, when I first got on, it was just, it was a very small collective of people there very early on. It was very easy to, like, reach out and talk to people. And then, just the floodgates of friend requests just started happening because we just started small. Once you ‘re in at the beginning, kind of grandfathered in, people find you.

MK: Right. Who ‘ Have you been reaching ‘ You must ‘ how do you ‘ I don ‘t want to say “following ‘””friending”?

JF: That ‘s the thing. Peach is also, like they don ‘t suggest people. So you only get friends by looking at your friends comments or if you slide past your main friend feed, there ‘s, it recommends friends of friends. So you can find Peachers through friends of friends or by clicking on a Peach ‘ profile to see who their friends are.

MK: A Peach ‘s profile? Is that a person?

JF: Yeah.

MK: You call a person a Peach?

JF: I would call them maybe a Peach or a Peacher.

MK: Peacher ‘

JF: Peachies. Some people call them Peachies. There ‘s a lot of nicknames for Peaches. We ‘ve not yeah decided on a single one yet.

MK: Do you think you ‘ll be one of the people to help decide?

JF: I hope so. I ‘ve been brainstorming.

MK: But also, you weigh in on what you like the most, and your voice carries weight.

JF: Definitely.

MK: Definitely? Whoa.

JF: Def.

MK: What are some other influencers that you ‘ve been Peaching?

JF: Goodness gracious. Some early Peachers, you ‘ve got a lot of ‘ You mind if I scroll?

MK: Not at all.

JF: There ‘s this guy Blayze. He ‘s a big promoter of Peach.

MK: Blaze?

JF: Blayze. Blayze talks almost exclusively about Peach. And how lit Peach it. Peach is one of the most lit apps.

MK: And he says this on Peach a lot?

JF: Yeah.

MK: Do you know who Blayze is?

JF: I don ‘t know who Blayze is.

MK: But you have memories ‘

JF: We ‘re friends.

MK: You ‘re friends on Peach.

JF: Let me find Blayze on here. Let ‘s see. Finding my boy Blayze. B-L-A-Y-Z-E. I can ‘t find him right now. Follow him. Check him out.

MK: OK.

JF: He ‘s a big proponent of Peach.

MK: Cool. Is there anyone else you ‘d like to give shoutouts to?

JF: Yeah, let ‘s do it. Joe Mande.

MK: Oh! He ‘s big on Peach?

JF: Queen Peach. She loves to show her butt. God is on Peach.

MK: God? Like God the ‘?

JF: Yeah.

MK: Wow. OK.

JF: Let ‘s see we got ‘ Who else is hot on Peach? Team Peach. You gotta follow Team Peach.

MK: Who ‘s that?

JF: That ‘s just the Peach crew.

MK: What?

JF: Like the Peach staff.

MK: Oh, TEAM Peach. I thought you said TEEN Peach.

JF: That is a big thing that happens! Accidentally peaching teens. Cause all you see is an icon and a name when you friend someone. I think they might have just updated it so you can now scroll through somebody ‘s profile, but a lot of your early friends are very young college and high school people.

MK: Teens.

JF: Teens.

MK: A lot of your early friends were teens.

JF: Peach teens. That you ‘re like “Alright.” And then, slowly, you need to weed those away.

MK: The teens are some of the ones that you ‘ve weeded out?

JF: Yeah, yeah, a lot of them.

MK: Really? Do you worry that will affect your status in the community as a mega star?

JF: Possibly but I think ‘ You know I had the brush with success, but you realize that you kind of want control with what you ‘re doing with Peach. And like if you blow up too big, it ‘s tough because you ‘re following trends instead of setting them you know?

MK: And you want to be setting Trends, and you have been setting trends which is why you ‘re so big. What ‘s been so far your biggest mark to date on Peach, you think?

JF: What have I done that I ‘m most proud of on Peach? Let ‘s see ‘ Oh! One of my first weekend Peach memes, there ‘s a thing on Peach when you ‘re writing you can draw on Peach, like a photo or whatever. So over the weekend I was selling celebrity autographs. So I would like sign George Clooney ‘s name, and would say “hey guys I ‘m looking to unload my George Clooney autographed Peach, for like 300 bucks, this weekend only, reach out.” You know?

MK: Whoa!

JF: Got a lot of love from that, saw a couple people doing that.

MK: Other people started selling signatures?

JF: So I sold like a George Clooney one.

MK: You actually sold it?

JF: No, no, no, but as a meme.

MK: As a fun ‘

JF: As a fun meme. A Jeff Probst ‘

MK: You sold a Jeff Probst?

JF: A Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen

MK: What were you signing exactly?

JF: I would just like write their name I would write like George Clooney in like a certain handwriting and then quote ER, so it would look like ‘

MK: Sure

JF: And then under the drawing you have room to write like actual type copy and stuff. And that was my fun original piece.

MK: And that got big?

JF: It was fun yeah.

MK: You would never say ‘get big. ‘

JF: I mean that ‘s for you to say.

MK: To me it seems big.

JF: Right.

MK: Based on what you ‘re telling me.

JF: Everything right now, mostly because it ‘s mostly just early adopters still in on it yet, big is relative. We ‘re not reaching like Twitter scale or anything yet.

MK: But the people you are reaching are gonna be huge influencers.

JF: That ‘s what we hope.

MK: Are there Peachers that you look up to yourself?

JF: A little bit, but like, I mean I try not to follow trends. I ‘m trying to make trends verses follow. I would say there are some interesting people doing some fun things mostly in ‘ you know who ‘s great? And he was good on Tumblr too, do you know who Topher Chris is?

MK: No.

JF: He ‘s a big Tumblr guy. I think he worked for Tumblr for a while cause he was so good at Tumblr, he ‘s early in on Peach doing a lot of fun stuff. He ‘s a cool internet dude.

MK: Where do you think Peach will go from here?

JF: Hm, great question. Well your big concern is always that they launched just like a little too early, cause you only get ‘ with an app like this you hope it explodes right away.

MK: Uh-huh

JF: I hope that we see some organic growth. And because it ‘s so friend based friends can convince and talk their friends who aren ‘t on Peach into joining Peach.

MK: And you think that ‘s happening?

JF: I think it will happen

MK: How long have you been on Peach?

JF: I ‘ve been on Peach, gosh ‘ Four days.

MK: OK.

JF: Friday of last week. Which is when it really first launched. A lot of apps like you ‘ll wait and say ‘what is this? why, why why?” And I was just like from the jump, you know what let ‘s do this one. Let ‘s get on it.

MK: And that seems like a good attitude, that seems like a star attitude.

JF: Yeah.

MK: What do you think is the end game for Peach?

JF: I mean, do you wanna see Peach be the next Facebook? No. Nobody needs that.

MK: Do you see Peach sort of ‘ I guess if there ‘s like a doomsday scenario which is Facebook, do you see Peach being a Doomsday?

JF: I think Peach is set up to be what we want Facebook and Tumblr to be. It feels like it ‘s organically growing, but that it ‘s already built walls around it a little.

MK: So it won ‘t be an all encompassing plague that spreads across the planet like Facebook?

JF: Yes. Because of the way you ingest information, it ‘s such like a proactive, you have to actively click through stuff to see it in your feed, because otherwise you just get a name and sort of a teaser of what ‘s inside.

MK: Like what do you mean?

JF: Let me show you.

MK: Don ‘t show me Peach.

JF: Oh you don ‘t want to see Peach?

MK: No.

JF: OK, so, when you first log on, you ‘ve got your feed of friends and it ‘s basically whoever posted most recently is at the top, but you don ‘t see what they posted. So you have to click through to their name.

MK: So it ‘s driven by personal brands and reputations that you even see what they ‘re doing.

JF: Right. and if you want to stay on top and have people see your stuff you ‘ve got to post frequently or be a close friend or someone they admire on Peach that they would scroll through their list of friends to find you. Cause otherwise you ‘ll get buried.

MK: It ‘s kind of harder. There ‘s barriers in place for the sake of quality. And you like that?

JF: I do like that. But then once your in ‘ It ‘s also a bottom up scroll. So the most recent post is at the bottom of the feed, and your scrolling backwards in time. So when you click through you just see what they just posted, and there ‘s another button on the bottom so if you wanted to see what the next thing the next person posted.

MK: Do you foresee Peach taking over for Tumblr, or Facebook, or Twitter?

JF: I mean, I think there ‘s always room for all of them. I think, it ‘s like so corny [laughs] like you know how if you have a kid you love it with everything you have? And then you have another one, and somehow you can love it just as much? I honestly think that ‘s what Peach is.

MK: Right

JF: You know what I mean? you get what I ‘m saying. We ‘ve just made room in our lives for all of this stuff.

MK: So I think Facebook is a cancer that ‘s destroying the internet.

JF: I would not disagree with you.

MK: Yight, how does Peach fall on that spectrum?

JF: I think Peach is sort of maybe the Joe Biden in this situation.

MK: Obama last night [at the State of the Union] assigned Peach to cure the cancer of the internet?

JF: Yeah.

MK: Wow. That would be special.

JF: Wouldn ‘t that be great?

MK: Do you think it has the same potential to strangle the freedom of the internet?

JF: Uhm ‘ I mean sure.

MK: But for right now?

JF: Right now I think Peach is pure at heart, and Peach has the internet at its disposal as its main form of communication. People are using other internet to speak on Peach, you know? Posting text over images or inserting GIFS from other places and things you know still doing that.

MK: You bring things to Peach.

JF: But you also bring yourself, and you can type all day if that ‘s what you want to say or you bring you know the things you love to Peach. One of my first Peaches was ‘what if this is the platform that I was just earnest and posted the things I love? ‘ and then I was like “hahaha no way.” But what if that is, wouldn ‘t that be great?

MK: Now you just said that one of your first Peaches was that, but you ‘re also a Peach?

JF: Yeah, for sure.

MK: Most things are Peaches on Peach?

JF: Almost everything is a Peach on Peach.

MK: Cool, cool. Final question, what ‘s next for you on Peach?

JF: I posted a few Peaches around lunch, probably gonna take the night off.

MK: Whoa!

JF: This will be my first extended vacation from Peach. But I ‘ll be thinking about Peach all night long. What I ‘m gonna post in the morning. There ‘s actually a feature if you type “G-O” you can either say “good morning” or “good night” on Peach to like sign on and sign off your day, so maybe that ‘s how I ‘ll start my tomorrow. I think it ‘s a fun way to Peach myself awake in the morning. I think that ‘s what I might do.

MK: Jason thank you so much for joining us for this interview. I think I know a little bit more about Peach. And I certainly know a lot more about Peaches like you.

JF: Great ‘ Peach me on Peach sometime.

MK: Peach I Peach. Peachy I Peach. Thank you Josh.

Josh Brown: No problem. Just give me a couple hours [to transcribe this interview].

*Editors Note: After filing this article I finally downloaded Peach and looked up Jason. It turns out he ‘s not actually particularly big on it.*