Flamyngo's pretty designed app lets you create a city guide as either a map or list. The idea is to ask your friends suggestions what to visit (bars, restraurants, etc.) and it pops-up on your list without them having to sign up for anything, only using a whatsapp/messenger link you share.
Example friends link: https://www.flamyngo.co/r/zaYb
My (web) profile: https://www.flamyngo.co/yvo-schaap
Founder: @mhgraven
@yvoschaap Thanks Yvo for hunting us! π
You perfectly sum up the benefit of the app. We've been building this app as the best answer for all those questions like "Anyone tips for NYC? About to go on a trip tomorrow!".
Just select which friends you want to ask for suggestions and receive all their favourite places in one inbox, including all the info you need like opening hours, contact info and photos. Remember the days where you needed to search on timelines or within mailboxes? With Flamyngo, the best suggestions from your friends donβt get lost.
Flamyngo is just getting started. Curious what everyone thinks! I'm here to reply on feedback :-)
@yvoschaap@mhgraven This is awesome. Started creating my own guide to the city that I can share when friends come and visit from the UK. One thing that would be great is the functionality to add notes. E.g - I'd add my fav bakery to the map, but I could also add a note such as "Get there before 8am or there's a line. The morning buns are a must-try!".
@samueljevans Nice to hear Sam! Adding a comment is currently possible when sending suggestions to a friend who asked you for places via Flamyngo. And... drum ruffles... adding a comment to your own places in the app will be available within 2-3 weeks π
@mhgraven How do people add suggestions? Do they need to install the app?
It would be great if you could just pull comments straight from Facebook and run NLP on them. Or second best, provide a web link for them to add suggestions.
@tombielecki Thanks for reaching out!
Your friends don't need to install the Flamyngo app. They just click on the link they received from you and can directly add their favourite places. You can share these links on/via any platform, including Facebook. Cool if you try it out, let us know if it works for you :-)
@rstankov Cool, enjoy your next trip!
You can also ask our team for suggestions, just use Twitter (@flamyngoandco) for your request and we'll try to inspire you with some nice places.
Awesome idea and concept. Any plans to let people create ready made guides that friends can pre-download without having to prompt a friend? And maybe make the guides for general public consumption as well? I have a number of friends that often come to London and I find myself recommending the same places over and over. It can in fact get quite repetitive. It would be good to be able to create a single guide and then share it out to whoever asks.
@khurammalik Great to hear and thanks for coming up with this feedback!
We should probably make it more visible in the app, because you can already share your guide. It will generate a deep link. Friends who use Flamyngo will see your guide directly in the app after hitting the shared link. Friends without the app will see the guide after downloading it via the link.
Desktop & Android users will see your guide on the web. Here's an example of my web guide for Amsterdam: https://www.flamyngo.co/maarten-...
Very cool concept! Have you looked into possibly connecting Flamyngo with Yelp or Open Table so users can get a deeper dive into a certain location recommended by a friend or even book a table? So if I wanted to know more about a friend's suggestion, then I easily connect to a place that had already done the leg work. I really like that friends don't have to sign up to make suggestions although what's your method for growing?
@caprihiggins Thx Capri! We've connected with Foursquare for showing info like photos, opening hours and contact details. There's also a 'Read more' button which takes you to Foursquare to see more info. In future, Open Table might be integrated as well.
We have multiple growth strategies to focus on, mostly based on the product itself and based on the insightful book 'Hooked' from Nir Eyal. Let us know if you have more feedback or questions, Flamyngo's are here to help!
This is a fantastic idea! Is it possible to string multiple things together? For instance, it would be cool if I could create a "bar crawl" tab that helps my friends navigate the bars without backtracking. It would also be handy if I wanted to create tours for friends that are timed to avoid traffic and busy areas
@henryltmiller Thanks for your compliment and suggestions! We haven't heard many users asking for the option to create tours or routes based on guides. However, the radar is ON now so will discuss it with the team once we hear it more often.
What exactly do you mean with the feature for having a tab to navigate without backtracking? Would like to better understand it before reacting on that one, thanks :-)
@mhgraven Looking forward to seeing how that plays out.
By "bar crawl tab" I mean a way for users to organize their recommendations in a way that is most effective for their friends. For instance, I live in NYC and am always asked where to go by visiting friends. To make it so they can check out all of the best spots over the weekend, I might say "check out Battery Park before walking to this Little Italy spot for dinner, and this Village spot for late night drinks," then have a second plan for them the next day in a different part of the city so they dont see the same stuff twice.
To me, it would be a helpful organizational tool so I can get the most out of a trip to big cities. Plus, once this app gets super popular, I can imagine it would get pretty unwieldy and annoying to see hundreds of tags all over Manhattan without any way to conceptualize the time it takes to get between them.
Long post, hope it was helpful.
@henryltmiller Thanks for the extra explanation on this Henry! Can imagine this route-like feature would come in handy when sending your favourite places for NYC with your friends.
What we'll probably come up with: users are now able to share their guides. Soon, they'll have the option to select which places they want to share from the guide. It may then be a good feature for your user scenario when you can share specific places of the guides focused on different days. By sharing these links you can add your own comment.
Unfortunately, it would take too much time in terms of development to calculate the time of the route between these places shared as guide. However, I do hope this sounds good enough to share your favourite places with enough context!
@jaapvannes Thanks Jaap! Many users have created a guide for their own city too, which makes it relevant more frequently. Let me know if this works great for you
Nice idea and very well executed!
Just curious to know what do you think will be the x-factor motivating the app users to keep suggesting place and so on for a longer run...
@rajanagan Thx man! π
Friends of the app users should be motivated to send their suggestions. We should continuously make the process of sending suggestions to users easier. One important criteria was that friends don't need to sign up in order to be able to send suggestions to the user.
Let us know if you have any feedback with regard to this flow, thanks!
Great app! I started using it from the soft launch and I really love it, I all ready made 6 guides.. Last week I was in Barcelona and had some great tips from a friend. There are 2 things I really would like to see; 1. "Add note" in list view. 2. It really would be great to filter the tips on "closest nearby". The last one will make your trip far more easier to walk ;-)
@nadirmea cool to hear you've been using it already and while traveling in Barcelona! Thanks for your suggestions on approving the app.
Good news: the 'add note' feature will be available in our next update. Can imagine that a 'closest nearby' indicator would have made your trip even better, so I will definitely discuss it with the team where to put it on our product backlog. Should be available during your next trip :-)
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