These KC natives made an app to help make new friends. Here’s how it works
A pair of Kansas City natives have created an app to help foster new connections and community in the metro.
Amin Wakas, 38, originally from south Kansas City, and Max Nelson, 35, originally from Overland Park, created TAP two years ago as a way to address the loneliness epidemic. TAP, short for time and place, allows users to open up their table or extra seat to a stranger for a few minutes whenever they want to meet someone new.
“I’ve seen a lot of people, a lot of transplants coming in, moving to Kansas City for work or whatever... a lot of new people are moving to the River Market or Northland and are trying to figure out how to meet people in Kansas City, especially in this day and age after the (Covid-19) pandemic,” Nelson said.
So far, TAP has around 300 users, mainly between the ages of 24 to 36, according to Nelson and Wakas. There is no algorithm to match you with prospective friends, and no extended chat feature, all in the hope users meet face-to-face right away.
“Making a friend from TAP can be a byproduct, but it’s not the main goal,” said Wakas. “The main goal is just to have a conversation and bring back that daily, weekly, whatever frequency interaction.”
How TAP works
After downloading the app, users are asked to fill out their bio with their age, a profile picture, a little about them, their personality type, hobbies, interests, friend traits and their most used gif.
When ready to meet someone new, the user can post a TAP, which includes what type of establishment they are in: a coffeeshop or bar. Other TAP users within a 20 mile radius will see the post on their homepage.
Users who see a TAP posted can ask to be invited. If accepted, according to Nelson and Wakas, the poster can then share the address for the specific business they are in.
“We want to facilitate the face-to-face meetup as soon as possible and we wanna modify the expectation,” Nelson said. “The expectation is now, we are not going to guarantee you meet your best friend with this, the expectation is you interact with somebody in your community for 10 to 15 minutes.”
There are several other safety protocols in place besides not immediately providing the address, including the requirement of verified phone numbers (no Google voice, etc.) and a reporting process. While a TAP post is up, the poster can converse with others, but only for as long as the TAP session is active. If, for some reason, either party feels unsafe, they can report the other. After that, neither party will be able to see the other’s TAPs.
How is TAP different from other apps?
Nelson and Wakas said they created users’ bios to give less information about users than other apps. Also, by not having a matching algorithm, they believe it helps take the pressure off users from thinking they are going to have an instant connection with someone.
Their hope is that people use the app to meet someone new seamlessly without having to chat for days or weeks to nail something down.
“You start seeing that (algorithms) actually hinder making relationships, because if you have an AI or some matching algorithm, that is just a glorified guessing machine... it’s educated at best,” Nelson said.
Having limited bios also prevents users from being more critical, according to him, adding people tend to swipe away from others on apps over something they wouldn’t judge as harshly in person- like their favorite music genre. Limiting the chat feature, he said, helps prevent ghosting which is common on other platforms.
“Chatting should be auxiliary. It shouldn’t be where the relationship lives and dies, it should help you establish a relationship,” he said.
Both Wakas and Nelson work full time at their day jobs; Wakas as a program and product manager and Nelson as a developer.
TAP is their passion project that they hope to expand throughout Kansas City and eventually other areas as well.
Their next big step along with marketing, is to partner with local businesses and eventually have them set up vendor TAPs in hopes of drawing bigger groups with happy hour deals and discounts. Nelson and Wakas also plan to start frequent TAP sessions themselves to build more engagement.
Where can I find TAP?
More information can be found on their website: https://www.smallrobot.app/home
The app is available for download on both the App Store and Google Play by searching TAP- Find your people.
