Epic Reddit Prank “Cat Facts” Is Now an App That Lets You Text Troll Your Friends
What do you get when you mix epic-level trolling with cats? Only one of the most popular Reddit articles ever: the funny “Cat Facts” prank by Reddit user “frackyou” is the eighth-most popular post on Reddit, and it’s now available as a smartphone app that you can use to automate pranking on your unknowing pals.
Cat facts you ask, “What’s Cat Facts?”
If you somehow missed it, Cat Facts is a reference to this hoax that was posted on Reddit a few years back. The original poster said that once his younger cousin posted his new phone number on Facebook, his elder cousin began sending him unsolicited messages that seemed to be from an automated service named “Cat Facts” but were really from his younger cousin.
In a series of screenshots, the prank’s victim can be seen becoming more irate as he is unable to stop receiving the messages despite following the instructions to unsubscribe, which may include entering in lengthy strings of digits. While waiting, cat facts like these come in:
You’re invited to Cat Facts! Did you know that the Crystal Palace in London hosted the first cat exhibition in 1871? Mee-wow
Recently, a smartphone app that allows you to transmit Cat Facts to your pals has made a comeback for this vintage practical joke. (Since there is undoubtedly a brand-new generation of mobile tweens who have not yet come across the Cat Facts meme or text trolls in general.)
Because “frackyou” is no longer active on Reddit, and because it appears from comments on the original post that “frackyou” actually borrowed the idea from another Redditor who liked that his idea was being used, Cat Facts creator Kyle Venn claims that he is not the original Reddit user “frackyou” and didn’t get in touch with him before creating this.
The app’s creator, Venn, a web developer by training, claims he started working on it two years ago as a method to learn Android coding.
“I developed it mostly to improve as a developer and never intended to really release it to the App Store. It seemed like a good concept that could take use of a tonne of cool technologies that I wasn’t very acquainted with, including SMS APIs, Android design standards, and automation, says the author. Venn decided to redo the app after seeing how badly it was created and working on it for a couple mobile development internships.
Also Read: Cybersecurity 101: How to choose and use an encrypted messaging app
I felt it may be something that other people on the internet could like after rewriting it a few times and making it appear a bit better, he adds.
Yes, the Internet would find this entertaining. We kind of have a cat thing here.
Unfortunately, the ability to unsubscribe is included in the first message of this “official edition” of Cat Facts since the programme must maintain legal compliance. (Bummer.)
Currently, the app relies on in-app purchases to enable you to communicate more than the first five facts, which are provided for free.
You could believe that you are the target of epic trolling this time since a few Google Play comments mention a problem with SMS not sending, but Venn claims to have located the problem.
It has to do with his exceeding the app’s maximum amount of text messages per second: He describes it as “a problem I never anticipated I’d face.” “During the first two days, [the] Server reached 100% many times… Since then, I’ve rectified it by spreading out the sending’s workload over multiple distinct phone lines.
It may surprise you to learn that Cat Facts has already been adapted into an app before. However, it looks the nicest so far.
