Path adds messaging, stickers for messaging, and a shop to, um, buy stickers for messaging

Path, the eye-candy filled semi-private social network app for iPhone and iPad, has updated to version 3.0. New features center around messaging, which allows you to communicate directly with a specific friend, rather than posting things for all of them to see. They've also added stickers, or little graphics you can send via messaging, and store to buy stickers. That's right, Path's way of asking you to tip the service, if you like it, is through $1.99 sets of cutesy pics.

The sticker sets are made by well known artists, like the Iconfactory's Dave Lanham, and each set has a score or so of stickers.

As to the rest of it, it remains as it ever was. Meandering and mixed. The user interface is gorgeous but the user experience is flummoxing. For an app called Path, it's ironically unclear how to move through it. Messaging is even worse. In my brief test, half the messages I sent were unintentional. The interface was fantastic, but I ended up sharing my location -- something I regard as highly private -- and stickers totally by accident.

Path sent them as I browsed them. That's bad behavior. I should be able to tap something, change my mind, tap something else, then only send it when and if I hit the actual Send button. Otherwise, why have a Send button at all? That lack of control makes it unusable to me.

If you've tried it out, let me know what you think. Are you all in on Path, and if not, does the messaging or stickers pull you in more, or send you running even further?

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