Ever have to harass your roommate every month to pay the utility bill?
Or maybe you, with a group of friends, bought a couch for your dorm and can’t remember who owes who how much.
The creators of the smartphone app Yabber would argue that with their product, issues like that will be a thing of the past.
Chief Executive Jonathan Miller and Chief Technology Officer Sean Thielen, the co-founders of the company University Niche who were college roommates, came up with the idea from innocent conversations. The pair said they knew firsthand how much life can be easier when all relationships at home are healthy.
“From talking with our friends who live together, we learned that a lot of them wanted an easier and more efficient way to stay in touch with each other,” Miller said.
The app acts as a private timeline for roommates to stay in touch, split expenses and pay bills. Miller said the prompts in the app include everyday reminders, such as “Jonathan spent $60 on groceries, you owe him $20,” to “Chase is going to the beach,” to scheduled recurring events like “tomorrow is trash day.”
Users can link a debit card to send and receive money from roommates for shared expenses.
“We want people to enjoy living with roommates and strived to make this experience even better,” Thielen said. “We’re not trying to reinvent group chatting. Rather we are making a unique platform designed specifically for roommates.”
Yabber, free to download from Apple’s App Store, adds up all expenses and automatically figures out how much you owe your roommates and how much they owe you. The app is coming soon to Android-powered devices, Miller said, adding that the company is currently raising money for and talking to several venture capital firms about future updates.
The app’s creators say it is more convenient and less intrusive than texting apps and allows roommates to publish what they are doing just by pressing an icon. Roommates can then interact with these icons in intuitive ways such as “ Chase wants to go too,” “Sean has seen this,” or “Jonathan has taken care of it” — and with one tap roommates can pay each other back for expenses.
Adam Arnett, a junior studying civil engineering said he sees value in the app.
“Often times my roommates and I can’t remember who owes who and how much,” Arnett said. “After looking at the app I am going to make my roommates use it, too.”
Dustin Hamon, a junior studying screenwriting and production said he doesn’t see why it should be a necessity in his lifestyle the app as redundant that tries to fix something that works perfectly fine.
“My roommates and I use a system that works for us and communicating face to face is more convenient to me. I don’t see why we can’t just text each other.”
