• EskomSePush (ESP) has announced a Mxit-inspire redesign for its mobile app.
• The announcement is part of an April Fool’s Day plan the company has been working on for a while.
• The usual design is expected to return tomorrow.

It is the 1st of April 2025, but for those in the technology industry, it is April Fool’s Day. It means that a number of odd and unfunny announcements will be made today. In the case of EskomSePush (ESP), the community-driven loadshedding app, tapping into digital nostalgia appears to be the inspiration for its April Fool’s joke, with it debuting a mobile app redesign inspired by Mxit.

For those not young enough to remember the messaging service, it existed in South Africa at a time before social media, where it was ultimately shuttered in 2015.

Now, ESP has seemingly tried to bring it back, sending out a notification to app users earlier this morning, which when clicked on, led to an 8-bit style text and emoji take over the application.

"Mxit never really left..It's been in our hearts!" pic.twitter.com/VPUhyfm7tf

— EskomSePush (ESP) (@EskomSePush) April 1, 2025

“After years of silence, the iconic South African platform is making its return, with a design true to its roots and a renewed mission: connecting people, communities and (perhaps) helping you figure out when the power’s coming back on,” reads a satirically fictitious newsletter post.

“The resurrection was spearheaded by a small but passionate team, including Intern Jeff, who originally pitched the idea after sharing a deeply moving story about meeting ‘the love of his life’ in a 2008 Mxit chatroom called ‘Bokkies4Lyf_WC‘. Though she ghosted him after a week, the dream lived on,” it jokingly added.

Whatever the reason for the move, it has seemed to have the desired effect, with the ESP going down briefly a couple of hours after the announcement as users signed into the chatroom to post messages about the good ol’ days of Mxit.

At the time of writing, 3 439 comments have been posted in the chatroom and counting, so if ESP was looking for more engagement on its app while there is no loadshedding, this has done the trick.

“One of the biggest features of the reboot? Love. Not the algorithmic swipe-right kind, but real, blurry-profile-picture, pixel-heart love. The team believes South Africans are ready to connect again. Properly. Through their phones. Like it’s 2007m,” the newsletter pointed out.

“The design? Still unmistakably retro. Nostalgia-forward. And designed to boost the scientifically proven likelihood of a spontaneous digital hookup,” it continued.

It’s unclear how long the redesign will last, but all indications seem to point to it being a once-off for April Fool’s Day.

While we appreciate the nostalgia, as well as the nod to a stalwart of South Africa’s tech scene pre-social media, we’re hoping normal services resume tomorrow.

If you don’t have the ESP app, and want to check out the retro-styled chatroom for yourself by downloading it, head here.