What is thisapp?
In the discussion below Robby Wade (Founder) shares our plan for reinventing Chat.
To summarize everything we discuss below.
- 1.We are redefining what makes a great chat.
- 2.Thisapp will be co-owned by its most valuable contributors, its users.
- 3.The result will be a long-lasting world-class product that society wants to exist.
What is thisapp?
Thisapp is an all-in-one chat platform that makes it easy to connect with anyone and organize anything.
Do we really need another chat?
We can all agree that another app for sending messages, making calls, and sharing GIFs, links, and stickers is not needed nor exciting.
Okay, then why are you building a chat?
We aren’t just building a chat—we are expanding the definition of what makes a great Chat. To offer a parallel example, consider the way the smartphone redefined your expectation of a great mobile phone. One day we simply used phones for calling and messaging, and the next, they elevated our everyday interactions.
Before we discuss thisapp any further, let’s make sure we are on the same page.
Chat apps have two primary use cases; communicating & organizing. While excelling in the communication vertical, the major chat platforms do not offer robust features that facilitate organization. As a result, we have to paste links, handles, screenshots, and personal identifiers (email address, bank details, etc.) from a host of apps into the chat. And in the absence of such features, chat is just another noisy app with a red bubble.
Chats should make our lives easier, but let’s face it, they haven’t evolved much in over a decade.
To add fuel to the fire, most of our friends and family have unique lifestyles. Many work 9-5 in the office, others work remotely, some are shift workers, a few live in another timezone, and the rest are weekend warriors. Few are organized and savvy, while the others are hopeless and unreliable. We love them all, and unfortunately, we don’t see them enough because organizing anything becomes a headache. We are constantly messaging back and forth to agree on availability, organize events, and keep track of who owes who.
What about the organization apps?
No one wants to be hassling their friends and family to download another planning app or be the person that sends calendar links when organizing catch-up calls. And you definitely don’t want to be the person at the dinner table trying to get everyone to download an expense-splitting app.
Okay, now tell me about thisapp.
As mentioned above, chat apps have nailed communication – which is why we will be offering the features you know and love. However, we are not going to stop there.
We are expanding the range of message types to include:
- Events
- Availability sharing.
- Payments
- Expense tracking.
Yes, you can share your availability and send events directly in the chat. And no, you don’t need five different apps. For the calendar aficionados, you can connect your Google/Outlook Calendar to further enhance the organizational feature sets.
- Additional feature sets that complement the chat:
How will thisapp compete with the major platforms?
While reimagining the UI and transforming chat with organizational functionality is long overdue, such enhancements may not be enough to compete with the incumbent chat platforms. They are too big. We need to flip the script and create a model that gives thisapp an unfair advantage.
We need to offer some context before we talk about our unfair advantage.
It is not a secret that the economic interests of the major Chat platforms do not align with their most valuable contributors—their users. They have long extracted disproportionate value and, in many cases, built their enterprise value by profiting at the expense of your privacy and wellbeing. The misalignment has led to one-third of users communicating across three or more Chat Apps. This isn’t just bad for business; it has led to a frustrating user experience, as we are constantly jumping back and forth between Chat platforms.
How do you align interests?
Co-Ownership. As the role of the individual in value creation becomes more commonplace, the next evolutionary step is toward platforms that are co-owned by users. This transition coincides with the advent of crypto-tokens which have unlocked the ability to distribute ownership globally. We believe that user-owned networks hold the key to creating multi-functional platforms that society wants to exist. This is why we are on a mission to build the first user-owned super-app.
Okay, so there will be a token that represents ownership?
With the introduction of the $THIS token, we can provide use-cases that were previously impossible and address some of the core problems created by incentive misalignment plaguing networks today. When a user sends a message, invites a friend, creates a group, shares an event, or makes a booking/purchase, they contribute to the success of a platform they inherently own.
Critical to making this happen is a Chat with no compromises. Which is why thisapp is designed to make the experience of using a standard Chat App mirror that of hailing a taxi vs. booking a ride on Uber. And above all, the organizational functionality must pave the way for social organization to evolve into a cultural habit. In the same way, content creation expanded from a profession to a daily activity.
What about privacy?
Contrary to common belief, privacy does not necessarily create trust. Beyond the foundation of security and stability, we believe the following are the necessary ingredients for fostering a trusted user-to-platform relationship:
- 1.Liquidity – I can delete, edit, and export my data on demand.
- 2.Transparency – I know what you are doing with my data and how that helps me.
- 3.Aligned incentives – When you win, I win.
The violation of privacy tends to be a business model issue. In many cases where data extraction is a crucial contributor to the bottom line, platforms need to extract more and more data to continue growing. We believe that diversifying the Chat business model is the key to enhancing the experience while protecting privacy and wellbeing.
We asked our friends, family, investors, and users what they liked about their preferred Chat platform and what would make it better? The most common response was
"I don’t know, it’s just a Chat?"
If we asked the same question about the smartphone, we would get a very different answer. It’s time to build a Chat that people not only love but one they own.
In short, this is the plan:
- 1.
- 2.Generate revenue through complimenting the chat with a tailored discovery feed of events & experiences.
- 3.Progressively decentralize & ignite growth through distributing ownership via the $THIS token. Engage the network to build further functionality and attract more service providers. Become the world’s first user-owned chat.
One last question, why are you doing this?
Chat is the foundation for building and maintaining relationships in the modern age. And sadly, the current products are not awe-inspiring; the world needs a better chat. One that it can trust. Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Elon Musk (Tesla), and Steve Jobs (Apple) have become popular household names. When was the last time you heard someone mention the team at WhatsApp, Telegram, or Signal?
Contrary to common belief, solutions are not inevitable, and technology does not improve automatically. Magic is the product of two forces great communication and aligned incentives, which is why I believe that a user-owned super-app will change the world. We have to do this because we are the only team in the world that's willing to do it.
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Last modified 6mo ago