Yo!
In case you haven't heard of the new social messaging app Yo, it's perhaps one of the most simple to explain: on your command the app sends a "Yo" message to any of your friends.
It was revealed on Sept. 6 that the popular app's users have now sent over 100 million Yo's since the app launched in April. Some counts indicate that as many as 4 million Yo's from 50,000 active users were sent in three months.
The app was created by Or Arbel in just eight hours and was launched on April Fools' Day for both iOS and Android-based devices. Having previously been a chief technology officer for the stock-trading platform Stox, Arbel quit his job to focus on the app full-time.
Yo received $1 million in funding in its initial round. It got its start when its principal investor, Moshe Hogeg of Mobli, requested that Arbel create a single-button app for when he needs to call his assistant.
In July the app was valued at between $5 million and $10 million and received an additional $1.5 million in funding from a group that includes eight investors. That month also saw the launch of the app on the Windows Phone platform.
Currently, the app has nearly 3 million registered users and a little over a million monthly active users who regularly send "Yo" messages to their friends. Motorola got into the act as well in late August when it used Yo to promote it's Moto 360 smart watch, the Yo blog noted.
"Yo started as a weekend project and exploded a little too soon," said Arbel.
"We were just finishing up rewriting the infrastructure in a proper and secure way, as suitable for production-grade apps, when it suddenly blew up and went viral."
Last month the app saw an update that allows users to extend the capabilities of their Yo's with media-attachment options, notifications and more. The goal has been to convert the app from a single-button novelty to a hub for a variety of notifications similar to a streamlined If This Then That (IFTTT). If successful, the app will see users both integrating and executing web services ranging from Pinterest to Instagram at the click of a button.
You can download Yo for free at iTunes, Google Play, or the Windows Phone Store.
