Designed by former Facebook employees, Cocoon markets itself as a "private and intimate space". The app promises: "You won't find any casual friends or followers inside your Cocoon, and definitely no strangers or advertisers. Only the handful of people that you have carefully chosen to share your key with."
Despite sounding like WhatsApp groups, Cocoon differentiates itself by encouraging more sharing amongst small groups of friends and family. Rather than simply messaging each other, it’s about sharing daily events like check-ins, steps taken, photos from your travels and mood emojis.
Rather than focusing on reciprocity, Cocoon looks like an enclosed social media feed that members can dip in and out of but with an added extra they call "serendipitous chat". If two or more people are logged in and the same time, a new live chat layer pops up. Members can talk amongst themselves and once they leave, the conversation disappears.
Another unique feature is called “Thinking about them”. If you haven’t anything in particular to say to someone but want to let them know they are in your thoughts, you can send this as a silent notification. It’s essentially the old “nudge” feature from Facebook but less obnoxious.
