Alumnus creates Tinder-like app for Reunions

Arjun Landes ’11 GS created the app “HeyTiger” to allow alumni and students to connect with other alumni on campus.

Landes said he plans to keep the new app running for at least a few days after Reunions, but beyond that isn’t sure about how the app will run in the future.

The app icon is a plain black background with an orange heart. Users connect through Facebook, with their profile picture becoming their picture for HeyTiger.

As of now, Landes explains that the app is not structured to allow for users to have more pictures on their profiles. User profiles show alumni’s picture, as well as their height, eating club, major and favorite Wawa snack.

If the app were to be extended past the time of reunions, Landes said he has considered adding a place for alumni to indicate their hometown.

In using the app, users are shown the profiles of fellow alumni and are invited to choose "yes" or "no" for a match. If both Tigers say “yes,” it’s a match, and they are brought to the app’s chat feature, where they can have a conversation.

The concept behind the app, Landes explained, is that alumni shouldn't have to come back for Reunions and fellow alumni shouldn’t have to wait to bump into each other in order to be able to start conversations. He started creating the app about a month ago.

“It’s really crazy at Reunions, and on HeyTiger, you can bump into 625 people and counting, in a matter of minutes,” Landes said. “I was hoping that Tigers of all ages can use the app.”

He explained that the age range filter on the app allows users to decide who they want to match with. At the time of the interview, Landes said that the app had just passed its 1000th match.

Landes did all the coding for the app himself and got friends involved in promoting a few days before Reunions over social media and email.

“I’m not sure about future plans," Landes said. "It’s been getting popular reviews."

He has pushed out a new version of the app during reunions to fix a bug. He thought that making available a limited version of the app in time for Reunions was better than no app at all.

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Christina Bieber Lake ’90 said she thinks the app is a great idea.

“It makes perfect sense, given that there’s a lot of people you want to hook up with and don’t know where they are necessarily or know if they’re even here,” Bieber Lake said. She said she thought she would use it because it’s helpful to find which members of surrounding classes are at Reunions.