Quist Review

Social history is frequently one of the more interesting ways of learning about a subject. In the case of Quist, the app offers plenty of social history relating to each day of the year, all focused on significant events relating to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender history.

It makes for fascinating reading; showing just how far the equal rights movement has come, while also demonstrating some of the darker days for those who identify themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

The app focuses on each day of the year, with each day offering a selection of different yet relevant stories. Some days might offer a significant speech or moment, while others might discuss a, usually, fairly horrific story in which people have been punished in the past for having different feelings. Historically, it's frequently interesting. Going back to many centuries ago, it might be shocking to see what happened to people, but it's also important to remember.

It's possible to browse the app for any day or year, as well as look according to US State or country. The latter proves somewhat awkward as I found myself inadvertently tapping on the wrong country, but it's otherwise pretty easy to use. There's often a moment of brief lag while the app looks for something, or loads an extra page, such as related information or videos, but it's not too irritating. The related information is usually worth waiting a moment for, anyhow, as it's often quite interesting. I suspect some of the lag is down to the ads that ensure that Quist is available for free, although it is possible to pay up $4.99 to be free of them.

Clearly focused on content rather than an optimized interface, Quist is a fascinating read for all. It's impressive to see for how long that many people have tried to fight for equal rights, or to be accepted for who they are. While occasionally, it might seem a little disheartening to see what problems have occurred, for the most part, it's great to see how people's spirits fight on and how far we've come as a society. As an app, Quist is an ideal one to dive into each day and learn something new.