The problem
Social plans don't fail because people don't want to see each other. They fail because coordination overhead outlives enthusiasm. A group thread starts warm, collects two "maybe"s and one silence, and quietly dies. The cost isn't an app problem; it's a friendship maintenance problem, and it compounds as everyone gets busier.
The insight: friction is asymmetric
One person, the organizer, is motivated enough to do real work. Everyone else will give you one tap, on a good day. Most planning tools fail because they tax the guests: download an app, create an account, learn a UI. HangEasy puts all the work on the person who already wants to do it and makes the guest's job effortless:
- No app, no account, no sign-up for guests. Every hang is a shareable link; RSVP is one tap. The easier it is to respond, the more people actually do.
- Time options, not scheduling tetris. The organizer proposes a few times and friends vote. Nobody hunts for the single slot that magically works for everyone.
- Vibes set expectations. Coffee run, game night, hiking: guests know what they're saying yes to before they reply.
- A live view of who's in, and a clear moment where the plan is locked: no more "so are we actually doing this?"
Product decisions
SMS, not push
Notifications matter for a coordination product, but push requires an installed app, which guests explicitly don't have. SMS reaches everyone with a phone number, with a plain opt-out. The channel choice falls straight out of the zero-install constraint.
The confirmation moment is the product
Polls and threads already exist. What they lack is the state transition from "gauging interest" to "this is happening: Friday, 7pm, Emily's place." HangEasy is designed around reaching and celebrating that moment; everything else (vibes, votes, links) exists to get there faster.
What I'd measure
- Confirmation rate: the share of created hangs that reach a locked-in date. This is the product's one number.
- Guest RSVP rate per share (does zero-friction actually convert?).
- Repeat organizers within 30 days, the habit signal.
- Time from hang creation to confirmation.