Samantha is a girl living in New York City. She’s old enough to drink and experienced enough to give love advice. But other than that she prefers to keep it anonymous, like Gossip Girl. Our first convo went like this:
Burrito in bed with a dog. Seemed human enough.
Samantha builds on the Ethan app, a simple messaging app that basically lets you message this one kid in New York named Ethan. Now there’s Samantha, an app for Ethan’s sister. It’s the same idea — now you can message the girl version of Ethan.
Samantha is a real person messaging you back, but the app isn’t necessarily a girl named Sam. She says she’s Ethan’s sister on the App Store. However, when I pressed her about it in a text within the app she admitted that, “as far as my relationship with Ethan – we know each other in real life, just as a brother and sister.” And according to Ethan Gliechtenstein, originator of the Ethan app, Samantha forked Ethan and hence inherits most of her features from the original Ethan app. But think about this for a minute. Wouldn’t that actually make Samantha Ethan’s daughter?
Weird family secrets aside, Samantha is just like the simple Ethan messaging app and then adds posts about herself. For example, Samantha will let you know when it’s her birthday or when she’s sleeping. But don’t be offended if you don’t hear back right away. Samantha told me she was handling about 100 texts at any given moment.
For those hoping to create a virtual girlfriend scenario, Samantha is not meant to be a “Her” situation. Rule No. 1 of Samantha is “don’t fall in love with Samantha.”
Other rules for Samantha:
0. Samantha is a girl. Be nice.
1. Don’t fall in love with Samantha
2. Don’t just say hi
3. Keep your mind out of the gutter, we’re all friends here (no dick pics please)
4. Sam’s too shy for selfies
5. Don’t ask Samantha to do your work
6. Don’t ask emergency questions
7. Don’t ask Samantha if she’s real
8. Don’t ask Samantha if she’s hooked up with Ethan (they’re siblings)
Gliechtenstein believes Samantha shows us all just how easy it is to get on this with our own, personal app. “Both Ethan app and Samantha app are pilot projects for the upcoming Ethan platform, which will be a website where people can come and build these Ethan/Samantha type apps in minutes,” says Gliechtenstein.