Since Valentine’s Day just passed us by, I thought it was suitable to bring up a small company in New York, called Urban Signals, to the love-searching spotlight. This newly started company, with their iPhone app as the main focus has been gaining a lot of media attention lately.
A work in progress, the idea is to flirt and connect with people in your surroundings and see if they’re ready for bonding using the GPS capability in your phone. The CEO of the company got her vision when she realized that there were so many connections that got lost each day, and she wanted that to change. Basically you send out a signal through the app to whomever shows up on your radar with the hopes for a response. With your own profile you can easily share whatever information you want. The system is built so that abuse doesn’t take place – this works by giving the signaled person an option to respond or deny your signal request. If it’s a positive answer then you can continue engaging with that person by asking a question, similar to a live chat or messaging. Also, the radar never tells the other person where exactly you are unless you want it to do so – that’s all up to you of course and there’s a “meet up” button for that.

At their blog you can follow the ongoing development and events and see what’s next, or even follow the ‘Hook-up Van’ on its mission to connect the people of New York. Apparently, more media coverage is around the corner. I really like this idea and hope that San Francisco will experience the radar soon. It’s quite innovative, and I see this as a meeting point for more spontaneous people, that don’t necessarily want to go through several steps in order to engage with each other. Apps that are made to connect people are a brilliant thing. So what are the risks you might wonder? I don’t know yet, but I guess that wide usage will tell us more. 

Hopefully we’ll meet out there soon ready for coffee, a drink or even dinner. As their motto says, “Urban Signals is taking love back to the streets!” Check out their website here.

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