Alumni groups develop dating, messaging apps

Lehigh alumni are breaking into the app development world with their novel ideas and skills. Two groups of alumni have created apps they hope will gain the public’s attention.

H.A.D. app

Four 2011 Lehigh graduates — Will Rackley, Michael Ojo, Ricardo Clerge and Prentice Small — created an app called H.A.D., which stands for Hookup Avoid Date. H.A.D., which came out in January, stresses the importance of letting other users know what your true intentions are before a date. Prior to being matched, during conversations, and even after you meet, users are to let the others know if they are looking to hookup or for a potential partner.

“I want dating to become more honest,” Clerge said. “In the dating game, I want the intention to be clear, so that there are no games when it comes to what the other person wants. You can even change your intentions whenever you want.”

The four entrepreneurs met at Lehigh during freshman orientation and have been best friends ever since. They were athletes and bonded immediately.

Rackley came up with the idea for the app while looking at other dating apps, such as Tinder. He saw that there was a lack of communication between partners regarding what they really wanted and the intentions behind all of their conversations.

“I would go on dating apps such as Tinder and see there was no intention,” Rackley had told the other group members. After the others agreed, they began development on the app.

Clerge said the app is gaining a lot of momentum. He said everyone is doing their part by utilizing different skills and networking to make the app more popular.

Small said the goal is global recognition.

“If you believe in your app…in your idea, build it and let it grow,” he said. “Get feedback and keep on working on it. Don’t run away from the struggle. We are always brainstorming for new ideas, amenities and features to make it bigger.”

Hoot Messenger

Two other Lehigh alumni, Chris Psiaki, ’08, and Cristina Cannella, ’11, are also working on their own app called Hoot Messenger, or Hoot for short.

It’s a messaging app that came out in February. It is similar to iMessage or GroupMe, but with a twist.

In this app, you can only chat with people that you have friended, and within these chats, you can send any message you like without anyone knowing who sent it. Strangers cannot enter these chats, and users can always see who is in what chat.

This leads to humorous conversations instigated by users’ imaginations. The messages can be pictures, GIFs or text.

“Hoot adds mystery to existing group chats because it is less formal,” Psiaki said. “If you have more people interacting, it adds a great humor value to a group chat.”

Psiaki thought of the idea during the summer while working at his programming job. He said Hoot was a way for him to learn how to program apps for smartphones and to teach himself how to use app development tools.
He did the programming, while his colleague, Cannella, worked on the user interface and logo.

Psiaki chose a messaging platform because he said that the general trend of the Internet is going from search bars to messaging.

Messaging is creating a wealth of information. He said he researched what he could do to create a twist on messaging and “threw his hat in the ring.”

Apps such as Yik Yak and JuicyCampus are very popular because everything is anonymous, he said.
Public access allows for abuse and you can attack a lot of people.

With Hoot, you can see the people in the group chat and interact with who you choose. But you must be friends first before messaging, which helps prevent attacking messages.

If Hoot gets traction, Psiaki hopes to work on the app full time with Cannella.