After the success of his wildly popular app Grindr (a dating app for gay men), founder and CEO Joel Simkhai has now launched Blendr. This app has everyone wondering what Joel is up to next however he promises its sole purpose is to make social media more “social” since he thinks too many of us spend time making connections online but never meeting them IRL (in real life). With the help of Blendr, you can quickly launch a profile using your Facebook info or create a new profile from scratch.
I was curious so I decided to give it a shot and just as everyone suspected it looks very much like another dating app even though it’s aimed at genuine interactions and friendships. The profile was fairly easy to setup. I used my Facebook credentials, filled out and answered a few questions, and I was online immediately browsing. Within 5 minutes, the push notifications started to kick in and I was getting pinged with requests to chat. Some were decent, the rest were questionable. If Mr. Simkhai was looking to create a “friendship” app and make social media more “social,” I think the message failed somewhere along the way. Perhaps, the success of Grindr has branded him and now Blendr is getting the same reputation? What do you think? Are you on Blendr or Grindr? Would you use an app like this to meet people offline or would you make an effort to reach out to your Twitter/Facebook friends?
