Food and friends are a click away with the new 'Down to Lunch' app
A fast, free and easy-to-use app called Down To Lunch (DTL) has started to take off inside the Lee University student body, changing the way people get together.
DTL was created in 2015 by Joseph Lau and Nikil Viswanathan, two Stanford University graduates who were seeking a more innovative way to spontaneously hang out with friends, according to TechCrunch.
The simplicity of the app allowed it to gain a large amount of users relatively quickly, and DTL currently boasts 4.5/5 stars on the App Store with over 50 reviews.
Sarah Nicolae, a sophomore resident assistant, received an invitation to get the app from one of her friends and added all of her friends once she downloaded it.
"It's really cool...you literally just press the button and everybody in your friend group can see that you're going to [places] for food and join you," Nicolae said. "I've added all of my staff members on there [and] all my girls from the hall ' it's convenient and it's simple."
The app features a few buttons that allow users to create friend lists, type in their location, and select an activity from a provided list, including lunch, chill, study, gym, shop, coffee, church and several others.
Once all the information is filled out, the user taps the large button in the middle of their screen, and all friends in their selected list will instantly be notified about what activity the user has chosen to take part in. It's that simple.
Sophomore Jo White has taken advantage of the app as a way to spend intentional time with people.
"To me, going to get [food] is [when] you spend quality time with people to catch up. The connection between eating and socializing is there, so [DTL] is a good way to just hang out with people," White said.
White believes the app will be good for those who use Twitter and Snapchat because of its similar convenience.
"Most of the time when you want to ask someone to lunch you have to send out a huge group message or just individual messages to a bunch of different people, but with this new app it's literally just two clicks and it's done," White said.
Nicolae said the app is a great tool to use on all college campuses.
"Everybody has the GroupMe [app], but I think [DTL] is great [for] halls and study sessions. I hope it stays around for a while," Nicolae said.
