MobileBeat Sponsor: Hapify

By Rachel Schramm - 06/12/2011 07:00:00

Ever wondered how your smartphone could help you discover happiness? Hapify, a new iPhone app, could help you find it. It's designed to help users share and reflect on their own happiness. First, you build a personal profile that records what makes you happy, and then you can share what makes you happy with other users.^[1]

 

Here's how the app works:

 

1. Download the app, free of charge.

 

2. Choose an option when the app opens:

 - "I'm Happy", which allows you to upload a photo, description or location that makes you happy. Once you've entered it, your input becomes part of a "happiness feed".^[2]

- Or, you can choose "Make Me Happy," which will give you suggestions from the happiness feed, so you can see what's making other people happy. You can search the top trends, or by locality. 

 

3. The app also allows users to send gifts to their friends via brands that Hapify partners with -- like Domino's. But more localized companies, like the bakery down the street, can also take part, if they're "hapified" enough. If that happens, they can start to offer vouchers or mobile coupons on Hapify.^[2]

 

This app was developed by Redscount Ventures, an innovative agency that develops new brands that change the way that people think.^[1] In that vein, Hapify has an end goal, creating a "geography of happiness that can quantitatively determine what the happiest hour is, the happiest street or the happiest deli, or any particular city, state or country in the world."^[2] They're creating a database of things that make their users happy. For example, recent analysis has shown that one-third of happiness pertains to food or drink, and that men "hapify" romance-related things more than women do. And the current 1,500 users seem to think that the Flatiron District is the happiest place in NYC, and that 8 p.m. is the happiest time of day.^[3]

 

This kind of information could hold a great deal of potential for marketers, brands, tourist destinations and restaurants. They'll be able to use Hapify's database of human happiness to make themselves more competitive and more attractive to customers. Companies can model themselves after what Hapify users have said makes them the most happy. 

 

Redscount claims that their goal for Hapify is to help users "learn about [their] own happiness." But does adding profit incentive to an app concerned with human happiness compromise the original goal? How can there be an honest database about what makes people happy if there is a bias towards profit? For brands that use Hapify to sell their products, happiness is all about leveraging customer engagement in a social commerce environment to make a profit. Say you want to use Hapify to send your friend a treat: a pizza! If there are no local restaurants around you that have vouchers on Hapify, you have to send them a brand-name pizza. That brand will gain popularity, simply because it was the only one available.  Does Dominos really make you happier than your local pizza place? 

 

Regardless of whether or not Hapify can actually improve human happiness, it is an interesting app that can offer it's users insight into what drives other people's happiness. 

 

References

1."Hapify." Hapify: Happiness at Your Fingertips. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Sep 2011. <"http://www.hapify.com/" http://www.hapify.com/>. 

 

2. Wagner, Alex. "The (Digital) Pursuit of Happiness? New App Aims to Please, Literally." The Huffington Post: Business. N.p., 09/05/2011. Web. 9 Sep 2011. <"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/09/hapify-application-iphone_n_859356.html" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/09/hapify-application-iphone_n_859356.html>. 

 

3. Lindley, Willow. "Hapify: An iPhone App That Will Make You Happier ." Refinery 29. N.p., 11/05/2011. Web. 9 Sep 2011. <"http://www.refinery29.com/hapify-i-phone" http://www.refinery29.com/hapify-i-phone>.