Spontime is a social media app with a difference — it’s aimed at helping people get together for spontaneous activities — be it getting coffee, going for a jog, and so on. The app is designed to make it quick and easy to send invites to multiple friends at once. If you’re interested in doing something, simply post what you want to do, and friends can either join, or not. Instead of having to invite friends individually, the friends come to you.
Spontime was built by the same kind of person it’s targeted at — a 21-year-old student, Karolina Demianczuk. The app was created the same way most apps should be — Demianczuk saw a need for a service, and made it.
“Spontime was birthed from a personal experience, when my university class got canceled and I was forced to wait two hours for the next class,” Demianczuk, founder of Spontime, told Digital Trends. “I messaged my friends if they were free and around, but none of them were there. I had no idea another friend of mine was waiting for the same class in the cafeteria next door.”
Most social media networks fight for attention — the more time you spend on the network, the more you can be advertised, and the more money the company behind the app can make. It’s interesting, therefore, to see an app that encourages people to spend time with friends in real life.
Sure, you could just post a message on Facebook or Twitter, but Demianczuk argues that Spontime makes things more personal than that.
“Because each friend receives a separate notification, Spontime’s approach is much more targeted and private than posting on a Facebook/Twitter wall or creating a group message,” continued Demianczuk. “Users do not see who else received a notification, unless the person joined the activity. In this way, we can notify about our plans even 50 people at once, without stressing out that none of them joins us.”
It’s certainly an interesting idea, and comes as somewhat of a breath of fresh air — people really are spending more and more time on their devices, and less time out in the real world having actual contact with others. If you’re someone who’s good at fostering real-life interactions and putting yourself out in the real world, you may not need Spontime. If you’re addicted to your phone and hoping to put an end to that, however, Spontime might be perfect for you.
