Your friend tells you about a great new TV show they’re watching on Netflix, or a new restaurant that you just have to try. If you’re like me, you tend to pop open the Notepad app on your phone and jot down this information for later…And then you promptly forget about it.
A new mobile application called Soon is now offering a better way to help you keep track of all those things you want to remember to do – whether that’s a movie you want to see, a bar you want to visit, a book you want to read, and more.
The idea is that by listing these sorts of smaller-scale “bucket list” items in their own dedicated space instead of using a note-taking app, it will be easier to keep track of everything you want to do.
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Explains Soon founder and CEO Carl Anchér, the problem with note-taking apps is that they become messy, and you won’t remember what you put in.
With Soon, however, each item is neatly organized into the appropriate category – e.g. “Books,” “Bars & Clubs,” “Movies,” “TV Shows,” “Hotels,” “Museums,” etc. The app pulls in all the additional information you’ll need about that item, whether that’s the movie’s plot, photos, the phone number and address for the location, and more. (I’d like it better if it would let you take the next step, though – like making a reservation via OpenTable or buying movie tickets, for example.)
Then, when you’ve completed an item, you can mark it off the list. This doesn’t delete it from Soon, though, but moves it into a “past” section.
The app also offers a social element, allowing you to follow your friends on the service in order to see what they’re planning on seeing, reading or doing, for further inspiration. And in the case that you don’t have enough friends on Soon to make the social element compelling at first launch, a “trending” section will show the hottest items in your own neighborhood or city – a feature that could be useful when traveling, as well.
Anchér says he and his co-founder, Henrik Evrell, came up with the idea for Soon because they both felt that there isn’t a good way to track all the things you hear about on a daily basis that you want to try. “We started asking around and saw that the most common solution actually was the note app, which looked really messy,” he says.
Soon began as a passion project, as the two Stockholm-based founders currently work in the agency world. Anchér founded Most Studios, which is focused on digital design and communication for up-and-coming tech companies like Tinitell, Qapital and Flic. Henrik, meanwhile, is a co-founder of Seventy, a brand agency doing strategy, design, and film for bigger companies like H&M, Universal Music and OnePlus.
But now Anchér says the two of them, along with a couple of other developers who round out Soon’s team of four, will be focusing on Soon and moving away from agency work. They’ve even pulled in a small amount of angel funding – mostly a “friends and family”-type of round – in order to get Soon off the ground.
Though arguably not for everyone – many people will likely think Notepad will suffice – I personally found Soon to be the perfect sort of single-purpose utility that I could see myself using on a regular basis for exactly the reasons the team specified. Using Notes is messy. I have no idea what I wrote down after some time passes, and I’m not even sure how to pull it up via search in many cases. (Did I write down that it was a “French” restaurant? I know it was a new sci-fi show, but did I say that or did I just write down the title? What was that book my co-worker suggested?)
That being said, as a free download, I was a bit concerned about the app’s potential longevity.
Anchér, however, says the team has a longer-term vision for Soon which involves making the app more social, where users can follow friends and other taste-makers, as well as build their own citywide lists, and more. They’re also thinking of expanding categories to include things like podcasts, gaming, music and stores.
These social elements somewhat of bring to mind those “rate anything” apps that were trendy a few years ago, like Kevin Rose’s Oink or the ex-Googler backed Stamped, for example. And those apps ultimately failed. But there’s still value in the flip side – the things “I’m interested in trying” versus “the things I’d tried and liked.” After all, that’s similar to what the site Product Hunt features – newly launched apps and games that influentials recommend trying.
Anchér also says Soon’s business model could allow businesses to communicate with future customers, discover hot leads, and incentivize people to try or buy their service in the future.
In the meantime, Soon is a free download here on iTunes.
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