New app “Zip” whips users into political shape

With the presidential race gaining speed and primaries looming over the country, political issues have infiltrated the minds of many. Now, it can be on their phones too.
Zip, a question answer app, also known as the “Google of Opinions,” gives users an anonymous opportunity to see what others think of candidates and see answers to questions like whether or not voters would choose a goat over Trump.

On Zip, the majority would.

Launched by Ric Militi’s company Crazy Raccoons about three months ago, the app hopes to bring quick answers to an array of questions.

“The question answer app was created to allow users to ask questions, voice their opinions and get responses to debates and squabbles from real people in real time,” Militi said.

And while most users — who average just upward of 30 years old — are asking questions similar to those in a national poll, the answers don’t always line up.

“We pulled the results from a question asked just this week: ‘Bernie Sanders versus Hillary Clinton,’” Militi said.

In just 24 hours, he said more than 100 responses were recorded, with the final results being “62 percent to 38 percent split favoring Sanders. By comparison, the poll results CNN released here list Sanders at 51 percent to Hillary’s 43 percent.”

The deviation, Militi said, could be from the nature of the app, which poses no real consequences. However, he also explained that Zip’s restraint of only listing binary options can’t account for those who would have supported a third party and did not have the option to do so.

Carolina Oaks, director of business relations at Crazy Raccoons, said in-person surveys are typically unpopular among the general public, and Zip addresses this issue.

“Participating in a poll or survey is something most people avoid, running in a different direction when you see someone with a clipboard,” she said.

On Zip, users can function entirely digitally in two different ways. A user can either type in a question to see its results or answer a question posed by someone else. While there are other topics users can delve into, politics has become the app’s most popular subject matter.

“All of the content is user-generated, which has also garnered a lot of interest from political entities because they not only get a pulse on public perception, but they can also measure what issues matter most to voters as the political landscape changes,” Militi said.

According to a press release from the business, the app’s analytics will be made available to political organizations and news sources for free, and offers more than 500,000 answers from all over the country weekly.

Each of the 500,000 answers is made anonymously, a feature Militi thinks may garner more honest opinions.

“Because Zip is 100 percent anonymous, users are asking and answering controversial questions — even ones they may not say out loud,” Militi said.

Alanna Markey, Crazy Raccoons’ director of brand development, said Zip also encourages humanizing party affiliations and showing the broad scope of opinions.

“Republicans have a series of philosophies they hold to be true, as do Democrats, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that every voter that sides with the party agrees with each and every one of them,” she said. “Zip is isolating subgroups within the traditional parties. Democrats that favor open carry [of firearms], Republicans that wholeheartedly support abortion, even social liberals that are hyper-conservative politically.”

And with the political bug spreading like the common cold, most people seem to have an opinion in some capacity. Zip hopes to become a space to see the changes in the political wind, with such a variety of questions that there are few stones left uncovered.

“After all, people are incredibly complex, and the current methods of categorizing ourselves simply fall short, homogenizing different people with different perspectives into the same limited groupings and leaving a lot to be desired,” Markey said. “Zip has the potential to change all that, and we could not be more excited.”