When Matt Arbesfeld and Matt Tancik met on their first day at MIT, they bonded instantly, having a mutual penchant for pistachio ice cream as well as inherently complementary skill sets. Since then, the pair has worked together on multiple of projects, including flashing LED lights for their dorm, a temperature-controlled cooking device for preparing steak, and an addicting mobile puzzle game that garnered nearly a million downloads. But while frequently collaborating, they faced some major hassles trying to reaching each other on the phone. Their latest endeavor, Cluck, seeks to resolve those issues.
Texting has quickly become the preferred communication mode for most young people today. But for the two Matts, it was exceedingly difficult to get each other’s attention that way. Arbesfeld noticed that it often took hours for Tancik to respond to his texts, and that’s because Tancik simply missed the initial notification. Phone calls weren’t exactly a convenient alternative because it required both of them to be free to chat.
If only there was a hybrid between the two methods that enabled one Matt to ring the other and then text instead of talk.
Soon, they can—as can you—using their newest iPhone app. With Cluck, which launches a week from today, you don’t actually need to talk on the phone, but you can still get the instant feedback of calling.
Cluck has been closed in beta for over a month now at MIT, and Arbesefeld tells me that the duo has incorporated a lot of initial feedback into the app. Initially, users had to press "send" to actually submit a message in the app.
“We found that communicating still felt too slow, because you had to wait for your friend to finish composing their message,” he said. “So the 'real-time' feature was added—which actually decreased the average duration of a conversation by a factor of 5.”
Here’s how it works:
Sign into the app using your Facebook account.
Your Facebook friends and phone contacts will immediately appear on your "Cluck friends list.”
To “cluck” one of them, click on their name.
The app will then enter a new screen that looks like an outgoing phone call. Your friend's phone will vibrate like a phone call, and when they answer, you’ll enter a real-time texting session.
As you type, your message is sent word-by-word to your friend. You can also send pictures and your location.
When either person exits, the Cluck session ends and the messages are deleted.
Since Cluck waits for your to finish a word before showing it to the recipient, it’s easy to correct embarrassing spelling mistakes before your friend sees them. Another advantage to the real-time functionality is that you can sometimes answer a friend's question before they even finish typing it, thus saving time.
Eager to get clucking? The app will be available for iPhone users March 4, and keep a lookout for an Android version later in the month.
Image of girl texting via Shutterstock.
