The archive · Consumer Apps · Product decision · 2022–2023
Gas's compliments bet: #1 App Store in 2022, Discord acqui-hired it, dead by Nov 2023
Nikita Bier's compliments app for teens topped the US App Store in Oct 2022; Discord acquired it in Jan 2023, shut it down nine months later.
Gas
What the business is
Gas was a free iOS-only app where high schoolers signed up by school and answered anonymous polls praising classmates — best smile, best DJ — with the chosen friend receiving an anonymous compliment; a paid 'God Mode' revealed who complimented you.
How it started
After selling his earlier anonymous compliments app tbh to Facebook in 2017 (which shut it down in 2018), Nikita Bier launched Gas in August 2022. It was iOS-only, available in the US and Canada, and built around high-school social graphs.
What happened
Gas reached one million daily active users within two months and hit No. 1 on the US App Store in October 2022, dethroning TikTok and BeReal; Bier said downloads reached 10 million by December. Sensor Tower counted 7.4 million installs and about $7 million in consumer spending by January 2023. A false rumor about the app briefly hurt downloads, but on January 17, 2023 Discord announced it had acquired Gas, keeping it running as a standalone app while its team joined Discord.
How it ended up
Discord acquired Gas in January 2023 for an undisclosed sum; an internal memo later showed Discord CEO Jason Citron saw it mainly as an engineering talent acquisition. Gas shut down on November 7, 2023 — nine months after the deal — after downloads collapsed from 3.1 million in November 2022 to about 2,900 a month by September 2023.
Background
Gas was launched in August 2022 by Nikita Bier, who had previously built tbh, an anonymous compliments app sold to Facebook in 2017 and shut down a year later. Gas worked by school: users joined with their school, answered polls that could only praise classmates — best smile, best DJ — and the chosen student received an anonymous compliment, with a paid God Mode offering hints about who sent it.
The format exploded with US teens. Gas hit one million daily active users within two months, and in October 2022 it became the No. 1 app on the US App Store, ahead of TikTok and BeReal; by December, Bier said it had 10 million downloads. Sensor Tower counted 7.4 million installs and about $7 million in consumer spending by January 2023, when Discord announced it had acquired the app, keeping it running standalone while its small team joined Discord.
The deal was less than it looked: an internal memo showed Discord's CEO bought Gas mainly for its engineering talent, planning to keep the app alive only until growth slowed. Downloads peaked at 3.1 million in November 2022 and fell to about 2,900 a month by September 2023; Discord shut the app down on November 7, 2023, nine months after acquiring it.
What has to be true
- Gas monetized curiosity, not community: paying for God Mode hints worked while the polls were novel, but the loop had no staying power once teens lost interest.
- The positive-only format was a genuinely differentiated wedge in a market of toxic anonymous apps, and it won the App Store — but positivity alone did not create a reason to return daily for long.
- The buyer's intent mattered: Discord wanted the engineering team, so the app was run on a slow-down timer rather than given a real product roadmap.
- Being iOS-only and limited to the US and Canada capped the market, and a viral false rumor plus the download collapse showed how fragile a hype-driven chart run is.
What can be applied
Chart-topping velocity is not a durable network effect: Discord paid for the team, not the product, and Gas was dead nine months later once its compliment polls stopped being novel.
Aftermath
After Gas shut down on November 7, 2023, its team continued working at Discord on making it easier for users to connect with friends. Nikita Bier went on to other roles, including head of product at X, and kept teasing new app launches. In retrospect, Discord's January 2023 deal looked like an acqui-hire: the team stayed, but no product was left to show for it.
Sources
- Discord acquires Gas, a compliments-based social media app for teens
- Discord buys Gas, the app for compliments
- Discord kills Gas, the anonymous compliments app it bought nine months ago
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