WULU Launches New Version of ‘Social Throwback’ App

WULU, a real-time topic-based conversation app, has launched Version 2.0 of their ‘social throwback’ app.

Since the launch of the app in 2014 that coincided with their sponsorship of the 2014 Startup Calgary Launch Party, the WULU team has incorporated new features based on feedback from early adopters. Users can now submit their own topics and have them automatically added to the conversation queue. The new “My WULU” section lets users keep track of topics from people they are following. A new dashboard also makes it easier for users to explore topics for conversation.

Based on current issues other social networks are facing with online bullying, WULU has strengthened the app’s anti-trolling measures: users can now flag and report comments and conversations. This security feature ensures that bullying, offensive comments, and trolls are not welcome on WULU and will be flagged, blocked, or banned.

To launch V2.0 of the app, WULU has partnered with the Calgary Folk Music Festival (which is running July 23-26). The team believes it is an ideal venue for the open beta test of the new version of the app.

“We believe in supporting local events in our city,” said Mike Nyhus, one of the cofounders of WULU. “I’ve attended the Calgary Folk Music Festival for many years. We felt that testing our product with a user base that is passionate about specific topics – music, bands, and community – would be an excellent place to test out the power of WULU.”

One new feature of WULU debuting at Folk Festival is their new “WULU Current” section. This feature will take advantage of WULU’s real-time conversation technology to host special artist chats with some of the performers at the Calgary Folk Music Festival. And as part of their partnership with the Folk Festival, the app will feature a special Folk Fest banner under which attendees can start conversations on topics such as Stages & Music, Food Fest, and Tarp Sharing.

Wulu Wants to Make Online Interactions Feel Social Again by Adding Gamification to Conversations

An entrepreneur who felt online interactions have lost their social soul has created an app that aims to resurrect lively conversations with a layer of gamification.

Wulu is an iPhone app “designed to create a social space for meaningful online conversation,” according to Mike Nyhus, the startup’s founder, who hails from Calgary.

“I was watching sports highlights one night and wanted to talk about it on my usual social channels—but I felt like I might as well have been talking to myself,” says Nyhus. So he tapped some friends with digital experience, who were also growing frustrated with the impersonal nature of social media. Wulu, his team hopes, will “challenge the central role of the status update in today’s social landscape.”

 

 

“I think everybody has had that experience where you post something online and nobody responds,” says Nyhus. “Back in the days of IRC and newsgroups, people were excited just to talk with each other. We’re trying to bring that back.”

Wulu is a real-time, topic-based conversation app in which users pick a trending topic and are then matched in small groups to talk about it. In the spirit of friendly competition, users can also reward each other’s comments with a “Nod” and compete to gain points in each conversation. The team describes it as chat plus social plus gaming.