The Gas App Is Trending With Teens: Here's Everything You Need To Know
Is this new social media app as uplifting for teens as it seems?
Teens are trading Snapchat for Gas, a new social media app that quickly rose to the top of the App Store. The Gas app became so popular that the community messaging platform Discord recently acquired it.
So, what's the deal with this new app? First things first, it doesn't have anything to do with filling up your car. The name “Gas” comes from a Gen Z phrase “gas up,” which means to overly compliment someone and make them feel great. Gas encourages users to gas up their friends with superlatives.
Here’s what you need to know about the Gas app, including why it’s trending with younger audiences, if it's free and if it's safe.
What Is the New Gas App?
The Gas app is a positive spin on social media, where kids exchange compliments through anonymous polls. A poll pops up, like “Should DJ every party” or “Their smile makes my heart melt,” and users anonymously vote for a friend. When your name is picked in a poll, you receive a “Flame” that lets you know someone voted for you. The app is specifically designed for younger audiences—mainly high school students.
Gas App on the App Store
Is the Gas App Safe?
The nice thing about the Gas app is that it’s restricted to your friends, not strangers. Once kids join their school, they only see classmates in polls. While adults can use the Gas app, they cannot join schools. Instead, they can only interact with other people in their phone contacts. There’s also no direct messaging feature, so the only way to communicate on the app is via polls.
However, with any new social media app there are always safety concerns. Gas polls are intended to be positive, but they often praise the “popular” students. Teen mental health is easily affected by not receiving Flames, which implies that nobody picked them in polls. Even though there’s no in-app messaging, that doesn’t stop kids from taking screenshots of polls and sending them via chat threads like Discord, Slack and iMessage.
Is the Gas App Free?
The Gas app is free to download and use. However, there are in-app upgrades for purchase. Teens can use Coins, the Gas app’s virtual currency that’s earned by answering polls, to have their names appear more in polls. They can also exchange Coins to have their name appear in their crush’s polls.
Users can even upgrade to "God Mode," which is a paid subscription that unlocks bonuses like unlimited hints to see who voted for you, two full reveals of people who voted for you, and crush alerts to see when someone adds themselves to your polls. This is where safety concerns come into play again, because the supposedly “anonymous” platform is actually not so anonymous for people willing to pay.
Why Is the Gas App So Popular With Teens?
Teens love the Gas app for two reasons. First, it’s a generally positive, feel-good app. The polls are all created and controlled by Gas, so there’s no room for user-generated polls that could introduce negativity. Teens enjoy opening up a feed of compliments that build their self-esteem.
The app is also trendy with younger audiences because it’s friend-based. Instead of seeing posts from strangers and distant relatives, kids only interact with classmates and friends.
Related: 101 Uplifting Confidence Quotes for Days You're Struggling with Low Self-Esteem
How Are Teens Using the Gas App?
Besides using the app to “gas” each other up, teens also use it as a dating app. Many of the prompts are around crushes, like “We should Hulu and hang” and “Would wanna go roller skating together and maybe hold hands.” Part of the game is finding out if your crush likes you back.
We’re all for the positive vibes of the Gas app, but parents, check in with your teens to make sure they don’t define their self-worth by online polls!
