What up PH! I’m Danny, CEO and co-founder of Free with @kelvin. We started working on Free over a year ago to solve a tricky problem: sharing when you’re available and making plans with your friends is damn tedious. It’s also pretty inefficient, intimidating to share with lots of people, and not that fun. If you’re like us: you text a bunch of people individually to hang, get a few responses, wrangle groups as people jump in/out, then finally meet up. We know software can make this way, way easier. There are a lot of awesome folks who have taken a crack at this problem but none have quite hit the mark yet for us. We’re no strangers to how nuanced and difficult the problem is — this is one of many major iterations we’ve built and we’ve put out our fair share of lemons. We finally have a take that’s been testing well with our friends & family, so we wanted to open it up to more people and see if they agree. This is where we’d be really grateful for your help. Give Free a try and let us know what you think. We’d love frank feedback (real talk) and ideas on how Free could be better with way, way more folks. We know it has many ways to be better and want your input. Personally, I’d love to jam on the problem with anyone in this community - add me as “danny” on Free and hit me up! PS we're going out tonight in SF to celebrate - if you’re available, come out and don’t be a stranger! Join my Free and the first round(s) are on us.

Congrats, brother, great to see this out, I know you've been working hard on it! :)

Wow. Incredible work @dtrinh. Awesome video. Definitely feels like this is something needed in an established social network (a la Facebook Messenger or Snapchat). Wouldn't be surprised if they just acquihire you. :)

Does this work with UK numbers? I've put my number in to sign up but no confirmation button appears or an error message. Looking forward to trying it out

Most of the reviews on Appstore complain about privacy issues and spam. Is this correct?

Neat idea and I see the potential. Onboarding was well designed but once you're in you do not get much gratification so odds of uninstalling is high. I can also see myself perpetually on yellow and never anything else, and I would imagine most people would just default to that. Future vision aside, this feels like a feature for FB Messenger. I would probably use this often if I could install this there.

This is awesome! Honestly, I feel like this is what Swarm wants to do/should have done... But this is super polished. Great work! Wish I were in SF to celebrate with team Free!

Messaging UX/UI is really nice. Almost better than Messenger. The "Unlimited Likes" feature is pure awesomeness :)

I'm really excited to try this with a few close friends. The whole design looks awesome. I love how the "chat" interface is started to get stretched and extended. This is the farthest I've seen someone run with it. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to use the app because I am having issues when I enter my number. I'm guessing it's just from high volume.

This app nails the UX in a way that many have failed to. Simple idea. Seems like the kinda thing that many college "entrepreneurs" want to build. But this actually does a fantastic job. Lots of little nuanced details are just right. Hope this ends up sticking. The messaging model really is taking off…

I'm curious how it works with friends in my contact book that haven't downloaded the app yet? The techcrunch video implies they get an SMS? Is that only if I move them into my favorites list? Will the sms contain information or just a generic link to download the app? Looks awesome!

Congrats to you two! #fan

Seems like the biggest challenge w/ Free + similar apps that have tried to solve this problem is getting people who aren't actively trying to coordinate an activity to consistently update their status. I think the simplicity you guys have is crucial, and push notifications/watch integration for updating status will be helpful, but how else do you compel people to keep their availability updated?

Hey ! Same concern as others about ASO, hopefully you'll manage to rank for this keyword at some point. Also, any plans for an Android app?

I love this product idea. I think it fits a perfect hole: the "latent" status model. I don't want to "push" to my friends, but rather let them "pull" my availability. Most of the time I'm likely available, but not enough to reach out and attempt to organize anything. I could see this extending beyond social, into pickup sports like tennis, basketball, cycling, etc.

This looks great

This is awesome. Congrats Danny!

The Good: Congrats on the launch! The app is beautifully simple and you're coming out of the gate with a boatload of features but it doesn't feel weighed down. That chat experience is legit. The status posting is super lightweight. EMOJI LINKS?! The Bad: The name "Free" makes App Store searching impossible. The verification code system timed out a couple times though suspect that's not your fault. If this hits a critical mass, there's going to be a lot of notifications flying around. Seeing statuses from 11 hours ago can make it feel stale. The Ugly: I think there is a good reason why apps like Red/Green, Status and others have failed to make real headway in solving the problem of getting people together: broadcasting generally is too impersonal for people to feel included. It works for close friends that you know are always down to see you, but for acquaintances and people you're just getting to know it's pretty awkward to invite yourself along/join the chat. There's also an awkwardness about posting your plans publicly: either your signalling that you want to do something but don't have (enough) people already to make it fun; Or, on the flip side, your announcing to everyone that you have plans and aren't interested in hanging out with anyone else. At the end of the day I'd rather just text those people I want to hangout with directly than worry about a whole pack of new social norms. That said, if anyone can make the status concept work, I'd put my money on you guys. Good luck team Free!

I've been using Free as a beta user for a while, and it's resulting in a lot of unforgettable nights with friends that wouldn't have happened otherwise! It's so fun, give it a go!

Played around with it, invited my friend! However the delay in the text message confirmation (1-2min) hurts my soul during the onboarding process. Perhaps because of the PH traffic? Otherwise, love the FTUE, excited to explore the rest of the app!