Former cable news anchor Greta Van Susteren is ready to jump into the app market with an apology app, according to a Facebook post she put up today.
Van Susteren says in the post she’ll be releasing her first app, “Sorry,” which she’s spent more than a year on already, to let people send apologies to one another.
“SNAPCHAT AND INSTAGRAM are about to get some competition!” writes Susteren on the post. “You will get to ‘accept or reject’ apologies from a friend (kept private between you and your friend) or ‘accept or reject’ apologies of public figures which we ALL get to see and vote to accept or reject.”
Susteren goes on to detail certain use cases, like when Kathy Griffin publicly apologized, presumably for holding up the fake head of Donald Trump on TV.
“Was it enough? or not?” Susteren asks. “And how would [Griffin] know if her apology was accepted without the vote counter?”
This, of course, begs the question about whether we need such an app. Clearly, Kathy Griffin knew her act was not accepted shortly after she did it. Countless news programs hounded the comedian and actress and later she sent out a public apology through the usual channels. People were then able to comment in various places online.
Obviously, we can also send a text or Facebook message apologizing to a friend in private and celebrities can turn to their management team or Twitter to publicly apologize. As illustrated above, the court of public opinion will swiftly be known from there.
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While Van Susteren’s fans seem enthused about her new endeavor, it seems naive to say the app will give any platform — Snapchat, Facebook or otherwise — any kind of true competition.
And even without yet launching, people on Twitter are already mocking the app.
This has to be a joke. If not it's a ridiculous idea and is dead before it starts. https://t.co/JokrHjKWBE
— Adam Singer (@AdamSinger) November 8, 2017
Lol seriously. What ever happened to speaking with people in person?
— John Doherty 👍 (@dohertyjf) November 8, 2017
Undaunted, Van Susteren wrote, in all caps, “SO MANY MORE DETAILS AND FEATURES TO COME.”
We’re waiting to see if the former anchor will end up publicly apologizing for the idea or not.
In any case, the app will be available for free on the App Store this November 14th.