New social app Drop makes it easier for users to find people with similar interests near them.
Jack Driscoll, 23, found apps like Facebook and Twitter do not make it easy enough to get in touch with people around you.
He created聽Drop as a way to search for people聽near you using different criteria and聽includes all their social media handles in one place.
鈥淗uge organisations like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter hadn鈥檛 cottoned on to how hard they make it to add people,鈥� Driscoll told 老九品茶Cloud.
鈥淲hen my slightly socially awkward friend and I are in a group of people, even though he chats and gets along with them, he doesn鈥檛 want to be the one who asks if he can have their Snapchat.
鈥淏ut once you鈥檙e on Drop you can just go online and it鈥檚 all there.鈥�
In an age where loneliness is so prolific the government has appointed a minister dedicated to fighting it, Drop can help people connect in a range of situations. It can also be used as a dating app but that isn鈥檛 the main point, says Driscoll.
鈥淢ost people say to me 鈥榦h, it鈥檚 Tinder鈥�, but聽no, it isn鈥檛,鈥� he said.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no 鈥榶es or no鈥�: it鈥檚 a carousel you can scroll through. On the standard settings you see people of all relationship statuses, all interests, all languages and all nationalities.
鈥淎 lot of users put in their bio that they鈥檝e just moved to a new city and are looking to make some new friends.
鈥淵ou can say 鈥榮he likes yoga and so do I, I鈥檝e just moved here, maybe I鈥檒l ask where the best studios are鈥�.鈥�
With 500 users since December and growing, the company is targeting different locations around the country to ensure it reaches critical mass in each place, and has also proven popular with people while travelling.
Driscoll admits he has found it a challenge to be taken seriously at times thanks to his age and brought his parents to initial meetings with developers as they had more experience.
However he believes his age means he鈥檚 in touch with the聽social media generation. As a result, he聽knew which features to include with the app.
The idea for Drop came after Driscoll broke up with his long-term girlfriend towards the end of university.
鈥淚 was with my girlfriend for four years so I missed all the Tinder stuff,鈥� he said.
鈥淢e and some friends were out at a bar on a Friday night and saw a few attractive girls. We weren鈥檛 going 鈥榦ut out鈥� so we all looked pretty rough and we didn鈥檛 want to go over but did want to add them on Snapchat or Instagram or something.
鈥淚 thought there must be a way to do that and surely everyone would want everything in one place but I had a look around and nowhere did it.
鈥淚 was finishing聽uni in a few months no thought there was no time like the present to have a go.鈥�