By Stephanie Fasano and Jenn Palmer
A new app called WiGo, an acronym for “Who is going out?,” is making it’s way through universities across the United States. Ben Kaplan, CEO and Founder of the app, wanted to create a fun way to rally your friends together. Group chats and Facebook messages are one way of making plans, but WiGo designs an easier way to plan your night.
“I wanted to create something that basically put all of the people in the same school together that could start talking about it [going out] and that’s what I did with WiGo,” said Kaplan.
To unlock the app for a college, the university must have 500 students download it first. “Once enough people are on it, it’s kind of just come apart of how you make plans,” said Kaplan.
Only college students with a “.edu” email can download the app. Also, they must have a valid Facebook account.
Jason Magner, Quinnipiac’s Field Marketing Representative, explains users can see where to go and make their own locations on the app. He adds, ”Take a Friday night for example. People will be going to Aunchie’s, or they’ll be going to Dick’s. They maybe going to any house party,” said Magner.
There is a feature on the app that is called “tapping.” This means users can select a student’s profile and by “tapping” them, that applies they want to see them out.
“With social media it’s kind of all about funny and flirtatious ways to communicate and a great example of that is like Facebook poke. It didn’t really accomplish anything but it kind of created this little craze, this flirtatious game you can play with people,” said Kaplan.
WiGo has a strong self-policing network. If a user notices someone that is too old, a parent, a professor, or a public safety officer, they can report or block them from the app. “As soon as you press that button all of us here in Boston are alerted, we look into it, we investigate the person,” said Kaplan.
“Quinnipiac is one of the most active users on WiGo, it has almost 1,000 users,” said Magner.
Kaplan and the executive board have plans to add another feature to the app. He related the new feature to Snapchat, My Story. The hint was also referring to enhancing the going out experience.
