From dominating Quake arenas to creating magic with Chancey, founder Chance Lacina first came up with the idea for his social networking app during the lockdown. Described as a personal meet up curator, Chancey analyzes your passions and hobbies and gently matches you with others who feel the same sparks.
In a world where traditional meet up platforms haven’t kept up with modern demands, Chancey aims to make real-life social activity as convenient and personalised as possible using the magic of technology. We spoke to Lacina about how the app works, and where it’s headed next.
Briefly, what is Chancey – Meetup Curator and who should be interested?
Chancey is the easiest way to meet people in your city over shared interests. It’s built to solve a social coordination problem: we rarely think about it, but in an average sized city, each of us are surrounded by dozens or hundreds of people nearby who share our niche obsessions. There’s no reason anyone should be bored or lonely, except there’s no easy way to let people know about each other.
Our members tend to be open minded introverts with diverse interests. They want to connect with other people, but they need something more than just dinner to get them out of the house. They need to connect over the graphic novel they just read, or the niche artist they listen to, or to play Settlers of Catan or something that that strongly appeals to them personally.
Why meet ups around hobbies rather than a more traditional social app or event platform?
Traditional hangout apps tend to be either too committal or too generic. On the too committed side: based on just a profile, you’re expected to either meet strangers 1-on-1 and “become friends”, or start some serious relationship (i.e. dating apps). On the generic side, you’re meeting strangers to have dinner, coffee, or talk about the weather. For most of us, neither of those options is very good.
As for event platforms, those require hosts. On some platforms, hosts have to pay a hundred or so ringgit a month for the privilege of hosting, then they have a lot of work to do to get people together. But local social demand is so much bigger than hosts can keep up with. And if people are strongly interested in the same topics, they don’t need hosts to organize anyway– they just need to know when and where to show up.
The spark that set me down the path to build Chancey was thinking about what if video game matchmaking tools were brought into real life to match people in groups for whatever real-life hobbies or interests are out there. I think video games figured out how to get strangers together and really have fun.
Currently, how far does the app cover geographically?
We have the biggest community in Kuala Lumpur so far. That’s where we’ve been concentrating our efforts. But the app is available (nearly) everywhere. Wherever you live, we have plans to get there. You may just have to be patient. In the meantime, if you’re not finding matches, you can message us and we’ll keep your membership going for free until you’ve had success on the app. We’ve only been available for 2 months but we’re already seeing some hyper-niche matching happening.
Since the app curates people by interests, how do you handle overlap, diversity, or even friction between different types of hobbyists? Is there a chance the AI can match wrongly?
Interest overlap and diversity are how we connect people together over niche topics, so that’s a good thing for Chancey. If you mean balancing social compatibility with social diversity, we plan to build a system that keeps people out of echo chambers while also keeping meetups comfortable for everyone who attends. On the comfortability point, that most often means gender balancing. For now, we don’t have any gender balancing options, but we’re working on it.
AI can definitely match wrongly. I shared an interest in “Chess” and got a “Christmas chat” (?!) as a suggested match today! Thankfully, it’s easy to click dismiss on those, and the system keeps improving as you go.
Since meetups happen offline, how does Chancey handle user privacy and safety?
On safety, like any IRL social or event app, we encourage everyone to be responsible and look out for themselves and others. Any gathering with strangers is safest during the day, in busy public spaces, and in reach of friends or trusted acquaintances. You can read more here.
For privacy, usually the biggest privacy concern is location sharing. With Chancey, you don’t need to share your specific device location ever. You just need to share a location you’d prefer to hang out so Chancey look for other people who like to hang out in that area. In example, you could just put The Exchange TRX Mall as your location for “going shopping” or “Magic: The Gathering”, and then once you match together, the group can vote on a shop nearby to meet at. For more information, see here.
To add to this, how does the app avoid predators from coming onto the app? Is there a security or report feature?
Anyone can report members behaving inappropriately. We handle these on a case by case basis, but generally, if requested, (1) we can prevent members from matching each other again, and/or (2) decide whether reported members need to be removed altogether.
Unlike free hangout apps, Chancey requires a phone number and bank card to become a member, which makes it harder for repeat offenders to return.
What do you hope people will feel when they use your app for the first time?
I hope people are amazed by how many people near them share their interests, and how easy it is to fill up their week with genuinely rewarding social activities. And I hope Chancey can make them feel empowered by the internet again or for the first time.
There really is so much more potential in our social environment, but Big Tech consumes our attention like a fog of war instead lighting the way to more fulfilling social lives. We can change that, literally, one membership at a time. The more of us put more topics into Chancey, the more deeply we can connect socially with our local communities.
As mentioned, though, we’re only 2 months into launch. We can’t quite deliver that experience reliably for super niche topics. In the near term, whenever people don’t find matches, I hope people take a sense of comfort from the fact that the Chancey team is working tirelessly to find others in their area who do share their interests. We see you, and we’re adding features every day to make sure the topics you share today turn into a lively social garden in the coming months.
What’s next for Chancey?
Truthfully it is up to you, the reader! We’re a very small team: four developers and myself. Your advice or suggestions can make a huge difference. We’ve done a lot of brainstorming about what to build next, but community feedback is everything.
The next steps already planned are custom algorithms for different activities. You can imagine being able to queue up for particular roles in D&D within your city (LFG IRL!). Whatever your priorities are, make it known. We read every email and DM.
For a limited time, use code MAGICCHANCE to unlock one free month of social magic. And if you stay on after a month, a portion of the proceeds go to The Magic Rain community! If that sounds good to you, reach us at Chancey.me !
For more about Chancey, follow their accounts on Instagram and TikTok.
