The Blog

Bitstrips: Do You Love Them or Hate Them?

Has your Facebook News Feed suddenly turned into the Sunday comics? You can thank Bitstrips for this new, trending way to update a Facebook status.

Just as the Candy Crush and Farmville invites started slowing down, we have started seeing these comic strips popping up all over our pages. For those that don’t know, Bitstrip is a Facebook app that allows users to create an avatar that looks similar to them and then use it in a template with their current mood or status update. This app has been around since last December but only became popular last week with their mobile update for iPhone and Android users.

In July, there were around three million users and as of now there are over 11 million users. The sudden popularity of these strips has come with a severe backlash as well. A lot of people are already turned off that their News Feed is now cluttered with these strips. The general consensus is you either love them or hate them…and the people who hate them are definitely voicing their opinions loud and clear.

“I’d like to thank Bitstrips for allowing my most annoying Facebook friends to complain in comic form.” -@brettharned

Another user on Twitter posted:

“I don’t really understand bitstrips…they aren’t funny and quite annoying when one posts one for every status update.” -@DukeOfHoops

Some people are blocking their friends or defriending the guilty parties, but there is an easier, friendlier way:

  1. Go to your Account Settings.
  2. Click on Blocking.
  3. Go down to Block Apps and type in Bitstrips (it will autofill for you).
  4. Don’t worry, you have the option to unblock the app whenever you want!

Bitstrip’s servers crashed last Friday, and the website just came back up yesterday. Having this downtime could potentially help their popularity because people were quite simply getting burnt out of them in such a short time.

With the average person’s attention span well under 10 seconds, these fads on Twitter and Facebook have a very limited shelf life. It doesn’t look like Bitstrips will be the force that was Farmville or Candy Crush because it’s not a game. But they do have plans for adding premium content and even plush toys in the near future, so it doesn’t look like they’ll be going away any time soon.

Which side are you on? Are you a Bitstrip fanatic or have you already blocked them from your timeline (like I have)? Let me know your thoughts on Twitter @Cbyron11.