Coda Review

Coda is a collaborative creative writing app designed to allow iOS users to write poems, stories, and other works of literature with others in the Coda community. Writing a creative masterpiece is relatively easy with this app.

To get started, users must first connect their Twitter account - anyone who doesn’t have a Twitter account won’t be able to use the app at all. Once inside, start writing a haiku, prose, sonnet, or anything that comes to mind and share it with the Coda community. Users are limited to just 300 characters. Other creative writers contribute their words and sentences to the literary work. What makes Coda so fun is that anyone can contribute to the story, but not everyone’s words are accepted. The original author can decide what gets added and by whom. When the creative work is finished, mark the story as complete and then others can enjoy it.

The main page inside Coda features stories by other writers. Coda users can go in, read the story, and contribute their own short words if they wish. Tapping on the three bars in the upper left corner brings up a side menu where users can view their words, works of literature that they favorited, earned badges, and access the Settings option. Contributing and writing creative pieces earns users Accolades that are awarded after milestones. For example, contributing to five works earns a badge. There are a total of nine badges that can be earned.

While Coda is entertaining, there are a few areas where it can be polished to make the app a better experience. For instance, only allowing Twitter users limits the number of overall users for the app. Since there currently aren’t that many writers using Coda, this means that there aren’t many creative works available. Coda could also use a better form of organization. The app shows the most recent stories, but it would be nice to have the literary works in different categories. I also couldn’t find a way to delete works from my Words list after stories were completed, which was a little frustrating.

Anyone looking to expand their creative writing skills and overcome a little writer’s block may want to check Coda out. It’s a little steep for a collaborative writing app, but the price tag does mean that only those serious about creative writing will pay the cash to contribute to the community. While there aren’t too many users right now, I was still receiving quick accept and reject updates. The more users who download it, the better the app will become. So users who find it attractive should definitely give it a shot.