official definition

cappuccino is an app where you record up to 3 minute voice memos, called “beans,” for a group of friends or a specific person. the idea is that all the beans will be made into a long podcast episode made by you and your friends and available in the morning as a “cappuccino.” the app incentivizes you to record one everyday with notifications and a “streak” similar to snapchat and by offering packs of prompts for your group to respond to.

imo

i was not able to find when the app was released, but i know that i gained popularity on tiktok circa 2021. personally, i downloaded the app mid-october 2022 after my friend brought up that they did the same with their friends high school. since then, my three high school friends and i have been recording beans for each other (almost) everyday. it’s really connected our group since we won’t be able to ~reunite~ this year due to one of us starting law school in los angeles, one of us starting a new job in davis, and one of us studying abroad in italy for the semester. to loosely quote one of my friends, it reminds her that there are more important things in our lives outside of school or our separate little bubbles.

in review

because my friends and i are all at different points of our lives (and currently in different continents) sometimes there is just one bean made by one person, but sometimes we manage to all record a bean for the day. my friend who recommended the app to me often laments that in their group, only two people are consistently recording beans. like with most apps, the excitement dies out and without friends to provide content, the app becomes useless and a little heartbreaking. 
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cappuccino helped reinvigorate my older friendships so much, this app is what inspired me to create this digital garden.