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Amazon’s New Surprise! App Keeps the Laziest Gift Shoppers on Their Toes

By on December 12, 2014

Amazon’s new Surprise! app needs to know something. Take a quick moment and evaluate whether any of these agree with you:

  • You often receive passive aggressive text messages from family members “gently” reminding you that an anniversary, holiday or birthday is coming up.
  • You’d rather just buy a gift card and get it over with, and you’re okay with getting gift cards in return.
  • eCards are better than real cards, because trees.
  • eCards are better than real cards, because animation.
  • An eCard and a gift card are the peanut butter and jelly of the Internet.
  • Amazon lives in your wallet.

If you nodded your head, then you’re in luck. Amazon will never let you forget to give somebody a gift. Ever again. The Surpise! app, just released on the app store currently sitting in your pocket or purse, does a number of things better than your brain. It keeps a calendar of gift-giving events, reminds you of those events and, finally, let’s you send an eCard packaged nice and tight with an Amazon gift card.

The calendar in Amazon's iOS and Android Surprise! App.

The calendar in Amazon’s iOS and Android Surprise! App.

eCards in Amazon's iOS and Android Surprise! App.

eCards in Amazon’s iOS and Android Surprise! App.

Customization in Amazon's iOS and Android Surprise! App.

Customization in Amazon’s iOS and Android Surprise! App.

Here’s the iOS version and here’s the Android version. The eCards are fairly simple at the moment, albeit with a small dose of customization. Users can insert photos, videos, audio and text into the templates. If the app is a success, expect a much more robust version in the future. And coming from the laziest among them, this thing is going to be a hit.

And for those who’ve long settled for the innocent shrug on those very special days, avert your eyes and make sure your parents never hear of this horrifying invention.

About Trevor Ruben

Though I contribute to many online publications on a regular basis, including The Checkout, the crux of my writing lies in video games. When not writing, I'm often streaming a variety of games on Twitch.

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