Category: Social Discovery

A new social Discovery platform called SmackSocial has publicly launched this month. The idea behind the app is to make social meet ups and activities easier and seamless to organise for friends. 

Co-founder of the app Whitney Graham described how organising a social activity across multiple different apps was a frustrating experience. The idea behind SmackSocial is that everyone gets the information about the hangout, even if they are not on the app – and puts them in a group chat that disappears once it is over. So there is no need for the mundane admin of leaving or archiving multiple group chats.

The app started as a Birmingham Young University master’s project but has evolved into the business and app launched this month. Alongside fellow alumni Kent Broadbent, the app has won a number of pitching competitions and has raised funding in the six figures. Whitney Graham said:

“Depression rates for Gen Z are through the roof, and people are struggling to connect in person. I’m hoping the app can help people reconnect, and that we’ll see greater diversity and inclusion in friend groups. Users now have the tools to cross over and combine their groups in an organic way.”

She goes on to describe more as a social coordination app – one that helps ensure plans between friends come off, and that friendship groups can be integrated with other friendship groups for activities more seamlessly. The app hopes to help friends avoid that FOMO feeling and make sure they are at every meet-up. 

The app is available now on the App store and already has over 500 downloads in the Google Play store. It’s a free to download app, but does offer in-app purchase for specific types of post and boost to your posts for social events.

A new social discovery app, aptly named, Socially, is launching next month in October across the UK. It rejects endless profile scrolling and tedious messaging, and instead embraces AI and the power of real meetups. Socially is available on both the App store and Google Play and free to use. It hopes to help fast track social connections beneficial to people’s health. 

Socially is activating its initial launch in the UK and specifically in the town of Brighton. It’s a common approach taken by social discovery apps to focus marketing efforts and reach in a single area. This helps build up a user base and a proof of concept. The expansion of the app can then be managed. It’s no good signing up 10,000 members, if those 10,000 members are not actually near each other for meet-ups. 

Socially will focus on organising both in-real-life and virtual hangouts for small groups. It limits organised activities to a max of five people, to try and hit that sweet spot where meaningful connections can be created in every event planned on the app. Users are advertised events and activities, not people, on the app. The real getting to know someone can be done in person at a shared interest – rather than judging someone’s ability to write an engaging profile page. 

Darren Newman, Co-founder and CEO of Socially, who spoke at last week’s Social Discovery Insights inaugural conference, highlighted the importance of apps that nurture and foster social connections. He said:

“It just takes so long to make new friends these days! I wanted to create an app that replicated that experience of building social connections and friendships through the participation of mutual interests but that expedited it. Where everyone is there to widen their social circle through the enjoyment of mutual interests and where there’s no fear of rejection or embarrassment.”

An app like Socially can take the awkwardness and ambiguity out of a situation. There’s no umming and erring if the person you have met is interested in making friends when you find each other on Socially, as opposed to when you have made friendly passing conversation at the gym, or at a gig with a person. The app also makes use of AI technology to reduce the barriers and awkwardness of setting up an event. AI will help auto generate a description for the event you want to set up. You can then of course edit to perfect it, but the initial work of getting something down is relieved. 

Additionally – the app will have a dedicated student pathway, to help university students connect with each other on their own campus or further afield. 

Socially can be downloaded for free on both the App store and Google Play Store.

We are pleased to release the photos taken at the first-ever Social Discovery conference!

Taking place in The Dilly hotel on Friday 15th September, GDI was joined by many exceptional speakers, including Social Discovery Group, gofrendly, Unlikeany, Djungo, Geek Meet Club, and more!

Taking place in The Dilly hotel on Friday 15th September, GDI was joined by many exceptional speakers, including Social Discovery Group, gofrendly, Unlikeany, Djungo, Geek Meet Club, and more!

A selection of photos can be found below, with all photos found on our Facebook Page.

It was a really insightful event and we were so happy to kick-off our new focus on the Social Discovery industry.

Please keep your eyes on the GDI website and social pages for more updates about the Social Discovery industry.

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CrimsonZip is a new mobile application for the university community at Harvard. It’s a social discovery app that combines exercise and social connections. Whether it is an intense work-out, an intro session to a new sport, or just a casual study break walk, the app is trying to encourage users to improve both their physical and mental health.

The app is rolling out this fall and currently aimed at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard College. The app will allow users to create and sign-up for a range of physical activities. More important than the activities themselves are who you do them with. That’s key to the psychology behind the app. It is hoped that by creating social connections, it will encourage the uptake and maintenance of healthy habits.

Richard Lee, professor of medicine and stem cell and regenerative biology, and co chair of the CrimsonZip program said:

“We’re not looking to turn everyone into long-distance runners, but if we can get 10 percent to 20 percent more activity from people — and then they stick with it — the implications for their lives will be substantial.”

Fostering social connections are just as important to living healthy lives as keeping active and physical. The app is rolling out at Harvard, but the minds behind it have their sights set on loftier goals, and will be making the software publicly available to be adopted elsewhere. Much like Facebook started in Harvard and spread, many social apps take this campus-like approach.

It’s by no means the first app targeted at combining physical and social activity. Apps like Strava, Stridekick, Stepbet, and Squaddy mix social aspects and the work-out world already. Apps that focus on a specific communities however that encourage a range of different levels of physical activity are potentially powerful and exciting. It could encourage those who would not normally, to get involved in the physical and mental benefits of exercise and friendship.