ShowMe STL<\/a>, was created by co-developers Izayah Hudnut and Jack Millikan, who recently shared their vision during an interview on Today in St. Louis.<\/p>\nHudnut described the platform as “the app to get the most out of Saint Louis.”<\/p>\n
“We make it super intuitive to meet up with your friends and find cool spots,” he said.<\/p>\n
The idea grew out of a desire to recreate the spontaneity of hanging out with friends \u2014 something the developers believe has become less common.<\/p>\n
“There’s the epidemic of people staying inside and not really doing anything,” Millikan said. “When you were younger, you used to ride your bikes to someone’s house and pull up to them on a whim, and so that’s really what this app is trying to do \u2014 find the coolest spots in Saint Louis to do that.”<\/p>\n
\nHow it works <\/p>\n
The app centers around a simple concept: checking into locations around the city.<\/p>\n
Hudnut said users can check in when they arrive at a restaurant, gym, bar, workplace or other destination. Once they do, their friends receive a notification showing where they are.<\/p>\n
“As soon as you do that, all your friends get a notification saying, ‘Hey, Travis, for example, is at Sasha’s,'” Hudnut said. “It immediately alerts them, and for us that is a high-signal notification saying, ‘Hey, we should go to Sasha’s tonight because Travis is there.'”<\/p>\n
Beyond social check-ins, the app also uses artificial intelligence to create personalized recommendations. Users can enter prompts describing their interests or plans, and the app generates suggestions tailored to those needs.<\/p>\n
“You can say, ‘My in-laws are in town, they’re staying in the Central West End, here are the things they like doing,’ and the app will sort of curate an experience based on your prompt,” Hudnut said.<\/p>\n
The platform also learns from user behavior over time.<\/p>\n
“As soon as you start liking places, going to places, following a certain topic like cigar lounges or gyms, we’ll start recommending you spots,” he said.<\/p>\n
\nPersonalized discovery <\/p>\n
Millikan said the combination of features is what separates ShowMe STL from other social and recommendation apps.<\/p>\n
“The playlist feature, the AI feature, the check-in feature \u2014 all of that together makes it one unique app,” he said.<\/p>\n
The developers have also designed the app to work without requiring users to constantly open it. Through a home-screen widget, users can quickly see updates from friends and discover nearby activity directly from their phone’s lock screen.<\/p>\n
“We built it to not actually have to open the app,” Millikan said. “You can check your lock screen and just see where your friends are at, and again, we’re really trying to remove the barrier to entry to going out and exploring Saint Louis.”<\/p>\n
\nWhat’s next <\/p>\n
As the app continues to grow, Hudnut said the focus is on bringing more users onto the platform and expanding its recommendations.<\/p>\n
“We’re growing and growing and growing, and right now we’re getting as many people on the app as possible,” he said. “You’re going to expect the newest spots, newest places, all different kinds of playlists that are tailored and interesting to each of your own particular tastes.”<\/p>\n
For the developers, the mission remains simple: help people discover more of St. Louis and spend more time connecting with the people around them.<\/p>\n
You can download ShowMe STL via the\u00a0Apple App Store<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ShowMe STL combines AI-powered recommendations, social check-ins and local discovery to help users explore St. Louis. ST. LOUIS…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[165,74],"class_list":["post-675052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-mobile","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}