What if there was an app to find friends and local hangouts that’s designed specifically for students at San Jose State?
That’s what computer science students Seema Vora, Surabhi Gupta and Isita Bagayatkar were wondering before they created Xircle in 2021.
Vora said they felt the need for a social app like Xircle because SJSU is a commuter school with few opportunities to socialize on campus.
“You happen to sit next to the right people in your classes, maybe you make a few friends, maybe you won’t,” Vora said. “We have 32,000 students at SJSU. Why base it on luck of meeting the right people when we can help you meet and explore and connect you with people that you wouldn’t have ever met.”
Gupta said the founders competed in Intel’s 2020 Hackathon and at that time, Xircle was a website with a very basic algorithm to match a couple of test users.
The feedback they got from the judges helped turn the website into an app.
A year later, the app was first launched in August 2021 while concepts were being tested.
Vora said in the first launch, Xircle had two ways to match people.
One way was the friend match, where the app would take users' interests and match them with people that shared similar interests.
The other method was study match, where it would take users' classes or their department, matching them with users with the same classes.
Vora said after the first launch of Xircle, users gave back some initial feedback.
App users said the initial registration process was too long, the UI wasn’t meeting their standards, the study feature wasn’t necessary and some features expected on a social media app didn’t exist.
Some of the requested features were profile pictures, notifications and texting.
“Honestly, we thought they were big features to add, but people just kind of expected them, that was the baseline they wanted,” Vora said.
When Xircle relaunched in June, they removed the study match feature and added a new feature called “Hangouts.”
Vora said users can create and explore nearby social events and trips with the hangout feature.
Gupta said after reaching out to SJSU clubs and fraternities, users wanted a feature that lets them form private groups so not all users can see when someone is going to a place.
Vora said user safety was their number one priority during development.
“Being female [students] on campus, we understand that there are risks and you aren’t always comfortable going on hangouts,” Vora said.
Isita Bagayatkar said they ensure everyone using the app has a verified school email.
Bagayatkar said Xircle also has a terms of service and a user-reporting feature, allowing admins to ban any suspicious users.
Vora said she hopes to one day have Xircle in multiple universities in the CSU system because she feels this is a problem affecting other schools.
“We think that social life shouldn’t depend on where you go and who you are,” Vora said. “It doesn't matter if you’re a commuter student juggling a full-time job. Finding new people should be as fast as clicking a button, which is what we do.”
