Where do apps come from?
That question is asked by all ages with the same bewilderment as little kids inquiring where babies come from.
It’s as simple as it is complicated.
Everett native Britney Bachmann, 26, and her boyfriend Garrett Shawstad, 30, created Talk or Not, a social messaging app.
Yes, it helped that both are techies. She’s a graphic designer at PepsiCo and he works for a vendor at Microsoft on the Xbox Video team. It took them countless hours to fine-tune a name, domain and design for the app.
Even so, they still needed to draw on the skills of others and plunk down some money. The couple spent about $2,000 to hire a developer, host the app and pay initial setup fees.
“I’ve always wanted to do a mobile app because that was my emphasis in college,” said Bachmann, who has a graphic design degree from Western Washington University. “We sat down at the computer and started concepting ideas. It was our summer project. We found a developer through oDesk. It’s a great tool for your first app.”
Talk or Not launched in October for iOS and is free at the Apple App Store. It’s not availabe on Android devices.
“We just want to get as many people as we can to use it,” said Shawstad, a Central Washington University graduate.
Talk or Not uses GPS and a search function for users to find others around them, based on age, gender and location.
It’s no Tinder, a hook-up app that connects users to others in their radius with the connection based on photos.
“We wanted to do the opposite of that, where it’s about conversation and the interactions before you base everything on a photo,” Shawstad said. “It takes away the prejudgments.”
He said Talk or Not uses a veil of mystery to allow users control over privacy when making new connections. Profile photos are hidden to all users with only silhouettes visible — blue for males and pink for females. Users decide whether to talk (or not) based on text conversations. After messages are exchanged, photos between the two are uncovered piece by piece. There are nine squares covering the photo.
The Talk or Not user base started with family and friends. A WWU article added some students. Many of the more than 100 users are in their 20s and from Washington. Others have popped up from New York, Mississippi, Russia and Istanbul.
The duo would like to eventually expand the scope of their app. “Say you’re in a new city and you just want to message someone to know where to go for dinner,” she said.
Bachmann and Shawstad both tried dating sites before becoming a couple more than three years ago.
“Two of my close friends met their now husbands through OkCupid,” she said.
“I think a lot of people our age in particular do hop on online dating sites just to try to make friends out of their normal circles,” he said. “Three years ago it was a different landscape. Everything was based on websites. Now you have the ability to put it in your pocket and be on the go with trying to make those connections.”
Still, technology only goes so far. After all, how’d they meet?
Through friends.
Their first date sealed the deal.
“I liked that he was very attentive. On our first date, he opened my door,” she said. “We went to lunch and just had really good conversation. We went bowling afterwards because we didn’t want the date to end. I enjoyed being myself. I’m super-goofy and I was able to be goofy around him.”
“We had a lot of common interests. We hit it off with those interests and conversation,” he said.
Online
Twitter: @TalkorNot
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/talk-or-not/id925631318?ls=1&mt=8
Tech Sundays
From the phones in our pockets to the flatscreens on our walls, technology is a huge part of our daily lives. We want to explore how technology is changing the way we live. Today The Herald kicks off a new section on technology that will appear each month in The Good Life. We’ll explore everything from Apple to Zillow. Have a story idea or feedback? Email Andrea Brown at abrown@heraldnet.com.
Andrea Brown: 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @reporterbrown.
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