Seattle Couple Launches NEW Social Messaging App

SEATTLE, Wash. — November 12th — Couple, Garrett and Britney, founders of Seattle startup Talk or Not, Inc. launch social messaging app for iOS named Talk or Not on Wednesday, November 12, 2014. The app takes aim at privacy in a fun way when building new connections.

Britney Bachmann (25) a graphic designer for PepsiCo and Garrett Shawstad (30) a content specialist for Xbox have been dating for 3 years. They met through friends but not after trying their hand at online dating. OKCupid and Plenty of Fish were the sites to use along with occasionally turning on their smaller mobile counterparts.

Things have changed in those three years in regards to how popular mobile apps are and the ever longing need to stay connected while on the go. According to insight leader Nielsen, smartphone users used on average 23 apps at about 18 hours a month in 2011, but last year that number increased to 26 apps and a whopping 30 hours a month in usage.

Looking at the current mobile messaging and dating landscapes Garrett and Britney saw an opportunity to build an app that focuses less on looks and more on conversations.

“Creating new relationships shouldn’t be based on a picture, or swipe left or right but more so on the conversations and interactions between two people” said Garrett Shawstad, co-founder and CEO of Talk or Not, Inc. “We wanted to come up with something different, something simple but still give users control over who sees their information as well as incorporate a fun aspect to it.”

Much like the name entails, users decide whether to talk, or not, based on personal text conversations and interactions. Talk or Not uses GPS and a simple search function to allow users to narrow down and locate other users around them, based on age, gender and location. With a simple and clean UI, Talk or Not makes all profile photos hidden to all its users with only silhouettes, blue for males and pink for females, visible but after messages are exchanged, each of the users photos will be uncovered piece by piece.

If a user decides to talk to another user, a message will be sent. If the person on the other end replies, a foundation is made and every message back and forth after that will unlock one square of many that cover and hide each other’s newly uploaded profile photos.

If two users are messaging back and forth and a user decides to stop talking based on perhaps; foul language, or vagueness, no further blocks will be removed. This will allow the user deciding not to talk the security and peace of mind in not letting the other user know who they actually are based on appearance. If on the other hand, the conversation goes well and there is a mutual trust, each users photo will be revealed with no added decisions besides deciding whether to talk or not.

Once a user unlocks another user’s photo, that person will be added to their unlocked page for easy access in further chatting.

Talk or Not is free and uses Facebook to login and register taking only minutes. All users will be prompted to create a username, select their age and gender as well as list a location. No information from Facebook will be displayed or shared, on Talk or Not or vice versa.

“We really wanted to create something that takes away the bias and prejudgments that regular social apps and sites focus on. We wanted to strip things down and make it easy to access people but still give one another the chance to keep things private and allow users to be the gatekeepers to their own information” said Shawstad.

About Talk or Not, Inc.

Talk or Not, Inc. was founded in July 2014 by software contractor Garrett Shawstad and graphic designer Britney Bachmann. Garrett and Britney designed and developed that app together as a personal project and goal. Britney, who designed the UI, is a 2011 graduate of Western Washington University. Garrett graduated from Central Washington University in 2009, he has a BA in Journalism. The team has grown to 5 people and is headquartered in the Seattle area. Talk or Not, Inc. is currently seeking its first seed round of funding which will ultimately be used to hire more team members to focus on programming and marketing.

For more information:

https://www.facebook.com/talkornotapp

Twitter: @TalkorNot

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/talk-or-not/id925631318?ls=1&mt=8