Los Angeles startup, Pen Pals Inc., has announced the official launch of their flagship social networking app designed to connect people around the world through one-on-one conversations.
Pen Pals® enables users to meet new people in a fun and authentic way by distributing their messages to other users in various countries. Gone are the public posts designed to get a "like" or the swiping left of profiles. By breaking these artificial silos other social media outlets put users in, it allows everyone to be themselves and genuinely engage with each other as if meeting face-to-face for the first time.
Here’s how it works:
• Users write an introduction message using text or images.
• Pen Pals’ system redistributes the message to other users from various countries.
• While users wait for their message to get a reply, they also receive introduction messages from other Pen Pal users.
• Users can continue their conversation through messages or become friends to chat with each other through instant messaging.
"We created Pen Pals because we believe every human has that inherent curiosity to explore and connect through other people’s life experiences" says Co-Founder I.ko Wilson. "Social media used to provide that but it’s changed. It feels like people talk at each other using a megaphone instead of talking to each other in a normal conversation. We want to bring that back."
They aren’t alone in those thoughts. While most people have switched from pen & paper to a smartphone, millions of people still seek out genuine connections with others around the world. With Pen Pals, the team behind the app not only want to create a friendly social experience, they are looking to provide a solution to a greater challenge.
Co-Founder Bryan Johnson says, "With everything going on in the social and political landscape right now, we thought this was the perfect time to build a new kind of social network fueled by empathy, compassion and kindness. A social network where learning about different people, from different places, in different cultures can influence how you see the world, while building new friendships along the way."
Pen Pals is more than your average messaging app. It has many other fun features including a mileage tracker of your messages and a Passport book where you can collect stamps from all the different countries you’ve contacted. It’s truly an amazing way of taking a nostalgic idea and making it fresh and new again.
Pen Pals is available for iOS with an Android version slated to launch in November of this year. For more information or media inquiries, please send an email to: press@penpals.io
