AUSTIN, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Soone today announced the official launch of the latest in meet-up application technology: the Soone app, available now for download in Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store. Soone is the first-ever connection app where you can quickly make real face-to-face connections, in real time. With the free app, users can fast-track meeting new people—dates, friends or business contacts—in under one hour.
Soone was developed by two college-aged friends, Austin Dill and Braeden McCarthy, who noticed meeting new people can be hard and initiating conversation with strangers can be even harder. So they wanted to create a way for people to meet in person—a way that was more comfortable and timelier than other dating or meet-up apps. Understanding the importance of real-life connection, the pair created Soone to allow users to meet face-to-face in one hour to see if there’s a mutual interest in building a connection—romantic, platonic or professional.
“Soone was developed as a way to get people out from behind their phones and interacting in real life,” said Soone Co-founder and Director of Operations Braeden McCarthy. “While there are other networking apps that allow you to make connections, none truly instigate an in-person meeting.” With Soone, a connection request must be accepted within 30 minutes. Once accepted, there will be a chat window that recommends some of the best places to meetup nearby. Just like that, you are in-person with a new connection in under an hour.
How Soone works:
- Create a profile. The user’s initial profile photo must be taken in real time with the phone’s camera, automatically removing the potential of catfishing that can run rampant on other apps. Other photos can be uploaded after the initial photo is taken. Users then select up to 15 interests.
- Soone then uses proprietary heatmap technology to show areas where clusters of users are actively using the app. They can also see active users within one mile of their current location on the explore tab. A user’s specific location is never shown, only that they are within a one-mile radius of a “hotspot” or active user. If interested, the app allows the user to get directions to the epicenter of the hotspot to connect with those users that are in that hotspot.
- To make a connection, users must be within one mile of each other to ensure users are close enough to quickly connect. The list of nearby users are ranked based on the number of shared interests.
- Once a connection request is sent, users have 30 minutes to accept before it expires.
- If the request is accepted, a chat window is opened for 30 minutes, showing convenient public locations for an in-person meet-up.
- A new connection is made!
To test proof of concept, Soone conducted online interviews with 500 adults who use online dating apps, broken out into key age groups: age 18 – 24 (44%), age 25-35 (45%) and age 35-44 (10%). The team discovered that up to 70% of respondents between the ages of 18-24 found the concept “appealing” or “very appealing”; up to 67% said they would use the app to both meet new people in general or meet people for a quick conversation or drink.
“Our inspiration for Soone was to promote getting people out from behind their devices and making real life connections – and doing so sooner rather than later,” said Soone Cofounder and Director of Strategy Austin Dill. “The Soone app allows for a smooth and seamless user experience that is targeted to consumers who are ready to seize the moment with a meeting.”
For more information or to download the app, visit soone.com.
Photos can be found here.
