This post, I want to devote to explaining where we got our Inspiration from and talking a bit about the two applications.
The very first idea of doing an anonymous Posting-Website for students was inspired by a German App called Yodel. It is not very well known in England, but a lot of my friends from home are using it to keep track of what is happening around them. The app is following a very similar concept to our website. Smartphone users can download it and then anonymously post and others can read those posts and rate them. The user only sees the posts from people close by, for example in their city. It is mostly used by people aged 18-25 to express their thoughts and ideas without sharing their true identity.
After looking into it, me and my teammates found another app that uses the same principle. It is pretty similar to Yodel and called YikYak. So I decided to look a bit into it, hoping to learn something for our project:
YikYak was first launched in 2013 by Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington. Both of them are graduates from a college in the US. The app allows people to create and view so called “Yaks” within a 10 mile radius. Just six months after the App was released, it became the 9th most downloaded app in the US.
Here you can see both, the webpage as well the app interface of YikYak:
References:
YikYak, 2013. Available from: http://www.yikyakapp.com/ [Accessed: 11th March 2015]
Itunes Applestore Preview, Yik Yak LLC, Available from: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/yik-yak/id730992767?mt=8 [Accessed: 11th March 2015]
Dredge, S., 2014. The Guardian. Yik Yak is the hottest messaging app in the world. So how are Brits using it? Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/16/yik-yak-messaging-app-brits [Accessed: 11th March 2015]