Friendship app for older adults to launch in Las Vegas
An app that wants to make it easier for more mature adults to connect with one another is focusing on Las Vegas first as it launches to the public in 2024.
Wyzr Friends was designed for adults 40 and older looking to find friends or activity partners. Taylor Jay, co-founder of Wyzr (pronounced “wiser”), said it operates similar to dating apps where people make a profile and connect with other users, but unlike dating apps, the Wyzr connections aren’t based on appearances.
Instead, connections should be built around similar interests and goals, she said.
The app has been going through a public beta, or a test run, since October and will launch to the public in January just after the CES show, which ends on Jan. 12, Jay said.
Wyzr Friends doesn’t have a big budget behind it, as it’s a privately funded venture and isn’t looking to pursue a national marketing strategy to boost its users, Jay said. Rather, he and co-founder Carolyn Kelly are making an effort to boost the app’s usage in individual states by unofficially following the 2024 presidential primary schedule.
Wyzr aims to hold a launch party in Las Vegas around the time of the state’s presidential primary in early February, and there are plans to partner with local businesses to encourage users to patronize these businesses for the Nevada launch, Jay said. She thinks that Las Vegas can be a great market to test the Wyzr concept, as many residents weren’t born and raised in Las Vegas but moved to the valley later in life.
“With Las Vegas, it’s really difficult to make new friends. You have a large percentage of people who recently relocated to Las Vegas. They work in either hospitality, or they’re working in entertainment,” Jay said. “And Vegas also has an older population.”
Though Kelly and Jay both live mostly in Southern California — Jay said she is a part-time Las Vegas resident, as her parents live in the area — Nevada played a role in getting the app started. The pair formed the idea for Wyzr while staying at the same camp at Burning Man in 2022.
“We started talking about friendships … and it was like, wait a minute, we actually need some friends too,” Jay said.
Kelly said Wyzr is targeting those 40 and older because it can be difficult for older adults to make new friendships and establish social connections, especially if they’ve recently moved to a new city, and many friendship apps on the market aren’t focused on this demographic.
“Most of the friendship apps we came across were niche apps focused on young adults or exclusively women,” Kelly said in an emailed statement. “Wyzr Friends is not a corporate conglomerate focused on dating, networking and friendship — we are singularly focused on connecting people for friendship.”
Jay and Kelly hope Wyzr can boost people’s health and make it easier for adults to build connections in their community.
“We’re not just stopping with chat, but we match on adopted shared interests, health and wellness goals,” Jay said. “We want people to match and work together to achieve those health and wellness goals. It’s really important, especially for older adults.”
Contact Sean Hemmersmeier at shemmersmeier@reviewjournal.com. Follow @seanhemmers34 on X.
