Elon Musk’s chaotic takeover of Twitter has driven plenty of people to look for alternatives. But, ironically, his leadership also forced a former employee to create one.
A year ago, Alphonzo Terrell was global head of social and editorial at Twitter. One of the many layoffs in the early days of Musk’s leadership, Terrell teamed up with DeVaris Brown — another former Twitter employee who left in 2020 — to found Spill, a “meme-forward” social network.
It’s now in beta on iOS on an invite-only basis. Should you seek out an invite? Here’s what you need to know about Spill.
What is Spill?
Terrell and Brown describe Spill as a “real-time conversation platform that puts culture first”.
But that makes it sound like it’s a direct Twitter clone, and Terrell is very clear that that isn’t the case.
“Let’s get the obvious out of the way — Spill will NOT be another Twitter,” he tweeted back in December. “As much as we love it, there’s always been a lot of issues with our beloved bird app.
“Rather, we believe this is an opportunity to build something fresh and push social media forward overall,” he added, highlighting a “large-language model AI” to improve moderation, and blockchain tech for content attribution.
“tl;dr - more fun, less hate, better business.”
How does it work?
Mechanically, Spill behaves like a cross between Twitter and Tumblr. When you load the app, you’re greeted with a feed that shows recent posts that you’re “sipping” (the nomenclature is all tea related — the app is “brewing your tea” while it uploads a Spill) alongside algorithmically surfaced posts you might like.
There are hashtags and trending topics, but the main difference in terms of content is its “meme-forward aesthetic”. The app encourages you to “express your thoughts by easily combining text with image, video, GIF, and more” which makes it a lot more visual than Twitter and in some ways closer to Instagram.
Who is it aimed at?
Tyrell says that while Spill is open and welcoming to everyone, its launch has been focused on marginalised groups, especially Black and LGBT communities.
“We are catering to culture drivers who frequently set new trends yet routinely get overlooked and under-compensated,” he tweeted. “Yes, we mean Black creators, Queer creators, and a variety of influential voices outside the U.S.”
Kenya Parham, the company’s global VP of community and partnership, explained this in a conversation with TechCrunch. “On every other platform, culture drivers — Black and brown folks, marginalised folks, queer folks — have had to kind of elbow to create space.
“We’re starting off with them at the front of the line, and we think that’s going to create a really healthy ecosystem.”
How do I sign up for Spill?
There’s a waitlist you can sign up for on the Spill site, though no clue is given as to how long you’ll be left twiddling your thumbs.
Alongside your name and email, the form has a space for “anything you want to Spill”, which gives you a little space to make your case, if you think you should be admitted sooner rather than later.
How are Spill’s prospects?
It’s always hard to judge a social network that’s still in beta and controlling the flow of sign-ups. After all, social sites rely on a critical mass of users to regularly post content and to keep visitors returning for more.
It’s also not fair to compare Spill to giants like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or even Twitter.
“This is not trying to be for everyone,” Sara Wilson, a former Facebooker who founded digital consultancy SW Projects, told Digiday. “It’s really community-first, or at least it’s framing itself that way. That’s not only smart, but also very much of the moment.
“Trying to be for everyone is not working. You have a platform like TikTok that really does speak to everyone, but you have to have a lot of money in order to compete.”
