On TikTok, Daze’s most popular video has been viewed 8 million times. Across TikTok and Instagram, the launch of a new messaging app aimed at Gen Z, we saw a combined 48 million views. Before the launch, the app’s waiting list is already full with about 156,000 people registered.
Driving the demand for this next-generation alternative to iMessage and WhatsApp is not a well-spoken promoter or paid advertising, but simply the application’s product demo videos, which appeal to a younger audience.
Founded by New York-based serial entrepreneur Willem Simons, Daze offers a free messaging app that takes its cues from social media. Similar to creating an Instagram story using different fonts, styles, graphics, and more, user conversations are no longer limited to blue and green bubbles. Instead, colorful messages float across the screen with images, graphics, stickers, GIFs, graphics, colorful backgrounds, and more.
In addition, the app currently uses AI to help power some of its creative tools; plans to deeply integrate more AI-based technologies in the future.
“Our goal with Daze was to create a complete messaging feature that competes with iMessage, WhatsApp, etc., while still having fun and classic features,” Simons told TechCrunch. “You can quickly type a message and press send, or drag the message anywhere within the conversation. It’s easy to use and useful, but it’s also free and unlimited. “
This is not the first time Simons has tried this idea. For several years, ending in 2022, he has been working on an app with a similar vibe called Muze. Like Daze, Muze has redesigned mobile messaging as a free-form canvas for creativity with a similar set of tools. But while Muze was co-founded by Simons and Douglas Witte with Grant Davis and Fenner Stevens as CEOs, Daze is Simons’ only project.
The new app, which is a pivot from the beginning of Daze as a social calendar, is built entirely in React Native to ensure that it can launch simultaneously on iOS and Android. Currently, the launch of Daze is scheduled for November 4. Before this, the app was in early testing with about 1,400 invite-only beta users.
While beta metrics have yet to be proven in the real world, one promising figure shared by a source familiar with the company’s testing shows that Daze’s 60-day retention of people who messaged the app is over 50%.
Not surprisingly, this freeform audience is young, with the majority of viewers falling into the 13- to 22-year-old age group, Simons notes.
The startup’s team of seven full-time employees and one part-time employee are primarily based in New York, with only a few people working remotely.
Prelaunch, Daze raised $5.7 million in funding from a16z, Kindred Ventures, Alpaca Ventures, Uncommon Projects, Betaworks, Maveron, 35 Ventures, New Wave, Antoine Martin, and others.
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