This App is the Definitive Solution to Your Indecisiveness
It's happened to the best of us: the weekend finally arrives, and you're ready to hit the town when suddenly you come to a standstill. What are you actually going to do, and when, where, and with who? But while you’re sitting at home in a miles-long group chat trying to solidify a plan (and, let's be honest, scrolling through TikTok when it all becomes too complicated), you could be missing your new favorite band play a block away from your apartment. Luckily, there's an app for that.
From concerts to sneaker drops to political rallies, IRL (In Real Life) is a social calendar that helps you to discover nearby happenings tailored to your interests and lets you know which of your friends want to join. The platform eliminates the need for janky lists of events, galleries of flyers, and endless website searches in a process that's simple but solves a major issue. Using a series of personalized algorithms, IRL works to present the best events based on area, personal preferences, and mutual friend interest. Gone are the days of deciding who to message about seeing Charli XCX in concert, spending hours researching where to celebrate Halloweekend, or heading down a rabbit hole of online calendars to find the next big sample sale after fashion week left your closet feeling bare. The app brings a whole new meaning to user-friendly technology by using its capabilities to direct towards real-life events.
We chatted with IRL’s founder, Abraham Shafi, in order to get the inside scoop about the app.
L'OFFICIEL: What are some goals and interesting things about IRL?
Abraham Shafi: We are building a product that helps everyone live their best life. For each person, living their best life means something different. It can be playing more video games, discovering cool new music to enjoy with your friends, and everything in between. We are building a service to help everyone do more of what they love with the people they love.
Every social app currently is focused on sharing what has happened or what's happening live. We are focused on helping you share what you're interested in doing and discover fun things to do with your friends. We are the only social network dedicated to helping you plan the future.
L'O: What accounts should we follow?
AS: Everyone should follow their favorite musicians, TV shows, activities, comedians, colleges, and anything else related to what they love doing. Maybe check out Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, or Bernie Sanders.
L'O: What’s the next thing on the agenda for IRL?
AF: The next big thing we are launching is the ability to join college networks, where you can post anything you are doing or want to do with only people in your school. Everything from studying in the library to pick up sports and parties in your dorm or frat.
L'O: What makes IRL different and innovative?
AF: We are building the first fun social calendar to provide a service to help everyone deepen their real relationships with their friends, acquaintances, and people who love doing the same things as you.
What Instagram did to photos, we are doing for events. They took a feature on Facebook and made it a network, changing the way people take and share photos everywhere. Spending time together is one of the things that makes us most human.
