CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — What do you get when you combine YikYak and Vine? An all-new social media app created by two UNC alumni: sp0t.
Self-described as an “unhinged, hyper-local, anonymous sharing” app, co-founder Tyler Trocinski said the name “sp0t” was inspired by a tree that he and the app’s other co-founder, Kenny Barone, kept returning to: the “O.G. spot.”
“It just felt like social media at the time didn’t fit sharing this place,” Trocinski said.
He said that apps like Instagram are tied to a personal identity or brand, and that one might not post certain things on their account in order to conform to that image.
“We kept imagining a social media where you could just capture experiences for what they were, and be funny and free on social media without fear of interfering with your personal brand,” he said.
Users are able to make an account under any username, preserving anonymity when posting pictures and videos. They can then scroll through a feed of posts made nearby. Users can also create and join “communities” that focus on specific topics.
However, all content posted is tied to the account’s phone number.
“It strikes a balance between low-stakes anonymous posting but also having some accountability and ability to moderate,” Barone said.
UNC first-year and marketing intern Riley Elliot said that sp0t is a challenge to the status quo of social media.
But marketing is just one of many hats that Elliot wears. The other is made out of aluminum foil—the signature look of sp0t bot, the app’s mascot.
“When I approached Tyler and asked for an internship, he was kind of like, ‘all right, but I gotta make you put on this head and talk to random people and ask random questions,’” Elliot said. “And, I was like, ‘well, that doesn’t sound super comforting. But I’ll do it.’ So we put the head on me and sent me on my way, and that’s kind of how it started.”
Prior to the app’s launch date, Elliot asked UNC students questions in man-on-the-street style interviews on sp0t’s Instagram account, @sp0tapp. Altogether, the reels have garnered over 66,000 views.
When asked the number one thing he wants users to get out of sp0t, Trocinski said he wants people to “just have fun with it.”
“I think that social media has become very un-fun, very much like work,” he said. “You grind on content to make it as good as possible, or like your brand, to make it whatever you feel that it needs to be. We want sp0t to be like a chaotic free-for-all that people are just having fun with and being goofy on.”
While there are plans to expand the app beyond UNC’s campus, Trocinski said UNC is a place that feels like home where he can make meaningful connections with students.
sp0t is available on the Apple App Store.