California Lutheran University's Student Newspaper Since 1961

The Echo

California Lutheran University's Student Newspaper Since 1961

The Echo

California Lutheran University's Student Newspaper Since 1961

The Echo

    NextSeat: The beginning of the end to group texts

    A free phone app has been released for the students of California Lutheran University called NextSeat to help them with their everyday college life. NextSeat was released to Cal Lutheran and Pepperdine University students for Beta testing.

    This app, promoted by senior Scott Peters, gives students access to their schedule, classmates and class-based message boards at the userโ€™s convenience.

    NextSeat LLC was launched for Beta testing in August, and is still in the early phase. Uri Blackman, co-creator of the app, said in a phone interview that this is all the more reason people need to download it.

    With so few people currently knowing about and using the app, there is little feedback from students going to NextSeat LLC to let them know what is and is not working for the users.

    โ€œThe biggest roadblock is getting people to sign up,โ€ Peters said. โ€œWe need people to join the app so that we can go out and get the internships and start bringing them to the people that are using the app.โ€

    The main goal of the app as explained by Blackman is to have the students sign up and fill in their classes, major and personal interests. Once enough students have done so, NextSeat LLC aims to contact companies for internships so that they can target particular students that would best fill the position based on career goals.

    Since the app is currently building a name and a reputation for itself, there are currently between 50 and 100 users at Cal Lutheran and Pepperdine.

    โ€œItโ€™s really good for freshmen because if you want to meet people in your classes, you just create a profile and add your classes,โ€ Peters said.

    The main focus of the app is to help students get connected with their classmates without providing their personal information to people they do not know well and to help them stay organized with their schedules and group assignments.

    โ€œItโ€™s nice to be able to connect with classmates that you are paired with in a group project,โ€ said Cody Daggett a sophomore at Pepperdine. โ€œSo often we meet our groups but donโ€™t exchange contact info.โ€

    Being so new on the scene, NextSeat LLC is still developing and working towards new goals constantly. One of their main goals for the next few months is to release the app on the Google Play Store as it is currently only available in the Apple iTunes Store.

    As the popularity increases the app will also have the feature of push notifications that the users can turn on and off for specific classes as they so choose.

    โ€œI am most excited to have the push notification feature. I donโ€™t know about you, but I have never been held hostage before, but I have been in a group text message and that is just as bad,โ€ Daggett said. โ€œWith NextSeat that hopefully will eliminate some of the painful groups texts.โ€

    โ€œWe are actually in the process of adding the graduate classes right now,โ€ Blackman said.

    They are hoping this market expansion will encourage more usage and feedback and will spark more conversation in the student population to increase more downloads on campus.

    Peters said that because the app doesnโ€™t have any professors or administrators connected to Cal Lutheran, they are looking forward to seeing how the students choose to use the app versus programs like BlackBoard.

    The hope for NextSeat is that it becomes an app used by all students at Cal Lutheran, but right now the company is really just trying to make it exactly what the students want and need to be organized and successful during their college careers.

    They are working mostly with suggestions from Peters and other users to make it more user friendly and organized, which is one of the many reasons they want more people to download the app

    NextSeat is currently available for free at the Apple iTunes Store for undergraduate students at Cal Lutheran and Pepperdine. To create an account, all that is required is your student email to provide verification that you are in fact a student at either Cal Lutheran or Pepperdine.

    The app will be available to graduate students soon, and for all you android users keep an eye out for NextSeat in the Google Play Store.

     

    Sydney Dawn

    Staff Writer

    Published October 15, 2014