Hangify, an app meant to help students find things to do around campus, has come to Temple.
Designed by students, for students, Hangify notifies users about events like concerts, games and parties in the area.
The app was developed by students from the University of Pennsylvania. Until recently, the app was used exclusively for Penn students. Now, the app is available to Temple students.
Any student with a valid Temple email address can set up an account and start exploring all the events posted, each with their own description and details. Factors like time, price and category can also be used to search for events more specifically.
Users can swipe events left or right to show interest or reject it, respectively, and although it is not quite ready, a new feature is set to release soon that will recommend events based on preferences from past swipes.
“We just want to help people come together and have fun,” said Sierra Hirt, a Penn student and head of marketing for Hangify.
The creator, Penn student Merv Arnold-Lyons, originally thought of the concept for Hangify in the spring semester of his freshman year. Since then Arnold-Lyons has worked with Penn alumnus Scott Kosch, investor and chairman of Hangify, and the rest of the Hangify team to develop the idea into a successful website for Penn students.
Now a senior, Arnold-Lyons and the staff at Hangify are rebranding the app with one more crucial addition: a new focus on Temple.
“We wanted a school with a large enough size, and a population that could benefit from our app,” Arnold-Lyons said. “Our research showed that Temple has a really good, consistent culture. So we decided to launch here.”
In addition to attending events, users can be more proactive with Hangify and create their own events. In a few taps, students and organizations can have their events appear on the app for other students to see.
Since its start at Temple, Hangify has held promotional events around campus. There’s a Temple-dedicated Twitter account from Hangify that was created in late August.
The Temple marketing branch of Hangify, made up of Temple students, has recently set up promotion tables around Main Campus to give away free merchandise and get the word out on the app.
With a successful response from Penn, and now Temple, they plan to expand and improve the app, launch in other schools and have a positive impact by helping college students connect and be involved.
“It is great to go to some events and just talk to all the freshmen and hear how they’re benefitting from the app,” Hirt said. “It makes all the hard work worth it.”
Levi Krum can be reached at levi.bradley.krum@temple.edu.
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