This is one area where I'll actively discourage fragmentation of the existing ecosystem. Currently in the U.S. it's:
1) PawBoost
2) Facebook Groups (which PawBoost usually posts to as well)
3) NextDoor
Past that, the animal needs to be captured and checked for a chip. Having 10+ different apps to report lost animals essentially means there's zero point to posting to one in the first place, unless there is some distributed system they all would agree to operate on top of (maybe ATProto? idk).
Somewhat tangentially related, yet several posters mention other apps in a similar category.
Is there a way to browse / search the app store from a desktop? Every link just seems to go to an advertisement splash page, and search for "stray" does not even return the linked app.
Found Lifestyle Apps [1] from StraySync's own "Lifestyle" category, yet only the top free apps to number 100 on desktop. Does not appear to show "PawBoost" or some of the other mentions.
I see strays from time to time and I do often wonder if they belong to someone. Is the idea that I'd be able to report the stray on the app and hope that the owner has the app too and sees my report?
The first is getting mass adoption of your app, and tell people what makes it so much better than what we already have (facebook/twitter/nextdoor/instagram/etc).
Also lost pets are common, but they might rarely happen to you. That might lead to the second issue which is notification fatigue and uninstall the app. Or people will forget, and simply uninstall the app since they never use it.
I think a better solution is putting an airtag (or an rfid tag) on your pet, along with a telephone number on the collar to call.
This is why I liked the orange collar idea so much. For some reason the movement never gained traction. But the idea is simple - if you see a cat with an orange collar, it’s an indoor only cat that has escaped.
Orange was chosen to be bright and align with prisoner garb. It’s such a good simple idea and the complete negativity of the internet pretty much killed it.
I like the idea. Plenty of people everywhere keep an eye out for strays, and having an app to connect them would be valuable. The main issue is how to let them know that the app exists.
Where I live, a slightly similar app (intended to connect lost pets with their owners) has found widespread local adoption. It is promoted by a local non-profit, so maybe partnerships with non-profits would allow you to find the audience that will appreciate something like this.
Also, this needs an Android app. You need every user you can get to make it successful.
Huh, didn't know there were enough people to perpetuate a model like that just for lost pets. I had thought of this a while back and figured that would be a no-go
I was thinking it might help if they opened up the premise a bit, just made it about collecting pictures of animals, maybe tagging them as being a stray or having a collar but being alone, that it might increase the engagement for something like this.
Neat idea! If you can, someone figure out how to get Nextdoor animal-posters to join and participate, this would be really useful. Last time I saw a dog on the street, I pulled over to catch the dog, re-installed Nextdoor, made a post, and brought the dog to the local shelter. It's hard to beat not only the neighborhood aspect of Nextdoor, but also just the volume and mental "this is where it goes" vibe. What's not hard to beat about Nextdoor is the NIMBY and triggering comments so you're halfway there, hah!
This is really cute, however I have a hard time seeing a route to widespread adoption as a marketplace of source. I was going to suggest adding adoption and rescues, however there seem to be a number of highly rated apps in that space already.
I would imagine the most useful function if a pet is lost or found would be to allow posting to places like NextDoor, printing posters, a contacting shelters, etc. and offering other support to people.
Yeah its cute but where are the opportunities for scaling, platformization and in-app purchases?
For something like this to work out we would need to incentivize users - how about a Pokémon Go style model for growth?
Actually, maybe animal rescue might not hold business model promise after all. How about a bounty driven model - I hear there is great business in ivory. Perhaps a pivot towards poaching rare and exotic animals? Any chance we could build in market place functionality?
Readit News
1) PawBoost 2) Facebook Groups (which PawBoost usually posts to as well) 3) NextDoor
Past that, the animal needs to be captured and checked for a chip. Having 10+ different apps to report lost animals essentially means there's zero point to posting to one in the first place, unless there is some distributed system they all would agree to operate on top of (maybe ATProto? idk).
Is there a way to browse / search the app store from a desktop? Every link just seems to go to an advertisement splash page, and search for "stray" does not even return the linked app.
Found Lifestyle Apps [1] from StraySync's own "Lifestyle" category, yet only the top free apps to number 100 on desktop. Does not appear to show "PawBoost" or some of the other mentions.
[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/charts/iphone/lifestyle-apps/6012?...
The first is getting mass adoption of your app, and tell people what makes it so much better than what we already have (facebook/twitter/nextdoor/instagram/etc).
Also lost pets are common, but they might rarely happen to you. That might lead to the second issue which is notification fatigue and uninstall the app. Or people will forget, and simply uninstall the app since they never use it.
I think a better solution is putting an airtag (or an rfid tag) on your pet, along with a telephone number on the collar to call.
Orange was chosen to be bright and align with prisoner garb. It’s such a good simple idea and the complete negativity of the internet pretty much killed it.
Where I live, a slightly similar app (intended to connect lost pets with their owners) has found widespread local adoption. It is promoted by a local non-profit, so maybe partnerships with non-profits would allow you to find the audience that will appreciate something like this.
Also, this needs an Android app. You need every user you can get to make it successful.
I was thinking it might help if they opened up the premise a bit, just made it about collecting pictures of animals, maybe tagging them as being a stray or having a collar but being alone, that it might increase the engagement for something like this.
Also +1 on the android point
A variation on "order a pizza, mug the delivery guy"?
I would imagine the most useful function if a pet is lost or found would be to allow posting to places like NextDoor, printing posters, a contacting shelters, etc. and offering other support to people.
For something like this to work out we would need to incentivize users - how about a Pokémon Go style model for growth?
Actually, maybe animal rescue might not hold business model promise after all. How about a bounty driven model - I hear there is great business in ivory. Perhaps a pivot towards poaching rare and exotic animals? Any chance we could build in market place functionality?