Joi Planner describes itself as “the daily planner to keep distracted minds on track.” It’s a tidy pitch for a tidy app. But someone might should’ve done a little more research on that name.
Joi Planner is an iOS app billed as a minimalistic daily planner. It brings a calendar, a to-do list, and a habit tracker into a single timeline, and it syncs with Apple Calendar and Reminders. According to its website, the app is designed “with simplicity in mind,” aiming to help users focus on “your day ahead.” It was created in Amsterdam and Lisbon, and the site doesn’t seem to have been updated since 2024. There doesn’t seem to be much information on the name available, and nothing about the product suggests anything but a calm, wholesome intent.
Then there’s the other JOI, which is commonly known as “jerk-off instructions,” a category of adult content in which a performer gives explicit directions to a viewer or listener. The phrase has been in circulation since at least 2008, and variations of it go back to at least 2000. Today it’s ordinary vocabulary across adult platforms. Creator-economy guides list JOI alongside GFE and SFS as essential OnlyFans lingo, describing it as videos, custom scripts, or live sessions in which a creator guides a fan through self-pleasure. VICE has reported that it’s one of the fastest-growing and most lucrative kink categories online, popular on platforms like OnlyFans and Clips4Sale. “JOI to me is an erotic performance style where the speaker, through voice, video, or text, guides the viewer or listener,” adult creator MelRose Michaels, founder of Sex Work CEO, told the outlet.
Once you know the other meaning of Joi, it makes the name of that app a little more awkward. The planner’s tagline makes the coincidence funnier, though nobody involved likely intended it. If you aren’t around the adult content world, you may have no idea that Joi had another meaning. After all, it has multiple uses. Joi is also a given name, the name of the AI companion in “Blade Runner 2049,” and the name of an existing JavaScript validation library, which shows how crowded the word already was before the planner arrived.
That’s the lesson for anyone naming software, an app, or a brand. Search the name before it’s printed on anything, and don’t stop at the first page of results. Check dictionaries and slang databases. Check how the name reads as an acronym and in other languages. Look at how it behaves in app stores, ad platforms, and content filters, because a name tied to adult content can run into restrictions that a more neutral one wouldn’t. A descriptor, like “Planner,” can help. A different name might be better.
The history of branding is full of cautionary tales. Mitsubishi’s Pajero, a full-size SUV sold since 1981, was marketed as the Montero in North America, Spain, and most of Latin America because “pajero” is derogatory slang in Spanish, roughly meaning “wanker.” In the United Kingdom, it’s called the Shogun. Mazda reportedly drew shocked reactions from Spanish speakers over a minicar called the Laputa, a derogatory term for a sex worker. Suzuki picked the name Hustler for a boxy minicar to suggest agility, and apparently didn’t anticipate that English speakers would connect it to an adult magazine. Each name worked where it was chosen and stumbled somewhere else.
Software faces the same problem, and the stakes are higher because products now launch globally on day one. An app can reach phones in dozens of countries at launch, with no chance for a local rebrand. And in this case, a name that seems cheerful in Amsterdam or Lisbon is entered a market where search engines and content filters don’t care about intent.