Hm. Co-Star explained themselves on the main issue I had with them.

I don’t know why I dislike the response yet, but I know that I do. There’s... a lot to think about here.

Oh and for context: I didn’t ask. Someone else asked and I screenshotted the response.

And just to clarify! There are MANY issues I have with Co-Star, this one just happened to be my main problem. You can always stop weird notifications and scrap questionable tables, but you can’t take back actions that mark your character.

I don’t think Banu even really apologized for associating Aries with manic episodes... at all. I remembered Astro Twitter responded super loudly and wanted a public apology. Co-Star really just ignored all of that and deleted the post once someone emailed them. No public apology.

I had to google what Manic Monday was. Look, I’m not the most cultured person in the room, but trying to make accessible astrology, having unclear context, AND being insensitive to mental illness, on TOP of astrology and mental illness being a hot topic is a hot mess.

Mental illnesses in itself is such an important, yet sensitive topic, but at best, it seems like Co-Star treated it like an afterthought. Co-Star’s brand is about creating intimacy. What part of any of this creates intimacy? The message here is harmful AND contradictory.

The message that’s being presented here is that we’re all for intimate conversations and connections! But for really raw and serious topics like mental illness, we’ll just trivialize it for content creation. Stuff like this makes Co-Star so insincere and irritating.

And no, this is not the only case on how insincere Co-Star is. The notifications you get are laughable at best, but terrifying and fear-mongering at its worst. Insincerity is the brand here.

People aren’t going to trust that you SAY your brand is. People will trust what you DO with your brand. I’ve read Banu’s responses on other questions about why the app is the way it is. A lot of it sums down to accessibility and ease for non-astrologers.

The only thing I’m impressed by is that Co-Star managed to do one thing: make astrology widely accessible. But you know what’s even harder? Making astrology accessible AND not misleading at the same time. Co-Star did NOT do that.

We’re not expecting Co-Star to be perfect at making astrology accessible AND correct 100% of the time, but... I don’t know, at least be mindful of what you put online because other people read your content and take it seriously?

Co-Star decided to have a pretty difficult goal, and when they had the opportunity to learn from a mistake, they didn’t. Deleting a post isn’t an apology. It’s also not the only time Co-Star has been insentitive either. As an app that encourages intimacy, I’ll remain skeptical.