As far as mobile applications or apps go, there is literally an app for everything. But making one’s presence felt amidst the crowd is never easy. Still, the Yo App has shone through the clutter with its ridiculously simple implementation and ultra-minimalistic approach to communication.
Yo is a very trivial iPhone app that does one thing very well, and that’s to send a simple, short “Yo” message to friends. While that sounds very juvenile and utter-waste of the communications platform, evidently plenty of users have already downloaded the app and are sending Yos every which way. To date, more than 4 million Yos have been sent by the over 50,000 users that downloaded the app, reported CBS News .
All that activity within a couple of weeks is certainly a good start for any app that does nothing more than allow the sender to send just a measly Yo. Explaining the concept a little better is the app’s description on its landing page.
“‘Yo’ is a single-tap zero character communications tool. Yo is everything and anything, it all depends on you, the recipient and the time of the Yo,”
Incidentally, the app is available for iOS as well as Android . Developed by San Francisco-based Life Before Us, LLC, the app’s creators describe it as “The simplest & most efficient communications tool in the world,” reported BGR .
Well, they just might be right with their claim. The app’s functionality is equally simple as its execution. Download it, choose the friends you want to send your “Yo” greeting to, and they get a push notification on their phone. There’s absolutely nothing else that the app can do. But perhaps that too might be a good thing. In the world where mobile based communications tools are offering users a plethora of choices including the ability to send files, pictures and documents, it might be a breath of fresh air to simply send a minimal message that conveys the right sentiment, like “I am thinking about you.”
“‘Yo’ is a very generic word that can mean anything,” explained Yo app creator Or Abel. We use such words very commonly in our everyday conversations. Now that the interactions have shifted to the digital realm, the Yo App makes the whole process a whole lot simpler, if not better or richer. From a technical perspective, Abel summarized it the best: “It’s lightweight and you don’t have to read the notification. You can choose to ignore it and there’s nothing to open.”
[Update] The Yo App’s creator has managed to raise $1 million funding from an as yet unannounced investor.
[Image Credit | BGR ]
