This week Champaign-based startup Voicle released a new hybrid social/gaming app for iOS called CliQs. The new app gives Facebook friends and acquaintances the chance to reveal what they think about each other by providing simple questions. The platform aims to establish connections between people through basic questions like “who is sexy?” or “who’s most likely to sing in the shower?” Users can pick one of their friends who best fits the category, and if that friend chooses them for the same question, the connection is revealed to both parties. Voicle was founded by Daeho Kim and Dan Park, who designed the new app’s slick interface. Kim said the idea behind CliQs came from a wealth of interviews with middle school, high school, and college students. “Most of them were having a hard time socializing with others,” said Kim. “Even though they have all kinds of social media, they tend to only socialize with small groups of people. They need a chance to get closer to each other by finding common points and common interests.” With CliQs social network acquaintances will have an extra outlet to find new connections amongst their peers, letting their network of friends know how they feel about them and learning some interesting insights from their friends. CliQs users can alternatively purchase in game currency to see the questions that resulted in connection between friends. According to Kim the new app helps users build a different kind of cyber identity apart from basic social networking connections. “It’s a new type of data that we can leverage,” said Kim. Voicle was founded in 2011 and is currently part of the Illinois Launch program at the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership. Kim said the team plans to launch an Android version of CliQs sometime early next year. “One of the big goals with CliQs is that we are trying to change the way people interact,” said Kim. “It’s a useful social tool to make their social lives easier than ever before.”
