Introducing Dasher

Dasher is a messaging platform that magnifies your level of control and expression. It’s designed for you to communicate with your friends and family with the same simplicity that you’re used to, but with a higher degree of richness — more like a social news feed than a SMS client.

Messaging causes too much friction. In most chats, sharing a link will force you to click out to a browser before learning anything about it. Asking ‘Where are you?’ or declaring ‘I’m 5 minutes way’ will be followed up by a complicated, possibly text-only discussion. Typos and mistakes will invade and confuse your conversation.

We’re working to fix all of that.

It’s easier to show with actions than with words, so please download the app or sign up on web, and check it out.

Here are a few interesting things you can do today on Dasher:

• Edit and delete messages you’ve already sent. When you make changes to your messages, those changes are reflected on everyone else’s screen in real-time.
• Share your live location. When you tap ‘On My Way’, your real-time location will be dropped into the chat and shared for the next hour, or until you stop it.
• Peek inside the links you share. We typically want to share content, not URLs. So we’re bringing the content out of the link and into the chat — Sharing a URL will not only send the link to the full page, but also a summary, thumbnail, embedded video, or other relevant bits.
• Express yourself with GIFs. As high-minded as I pretend to be, I need to fess up that this is basically what I do all day. Hashtags automatically turn into a related, almost definitely puerile GIF. #confession

There’s a lot more in there, and more still to come.

This all works because the core of Dasher is something different. There are at least a couple important technical distinctions:

• Messages can change over time. In fact, each message contains its own little data store that stays synchronized across everyone in the conversation.
• Messages are rendered templates that go beyond simple text and images. You’ll find embedded media, webviews, maps, and other custom types in Dasher messages. A single message can be composed of many rich components.

The fundamental differences are large —which we hope sets the stage for a deeper and more engaging experience as we go.

You can get into Dasher via the iOS app on the go, or on Web, while you’re sitting at your desk at work (Android will be arriving very soon!). Conversations stay synchronized across all platforms as you hop between them.

So please sign up, give it a try, invite your friends, and tap that ‘Chat with Founders’ button under Feedback. We’d love to know what you think.