Google’s new app allows people to know if you’re “down” to hangout

Google has launched a new app on Apple's App Store and Google Play Store called "Who's Down".   The app allows users to instantly find out which of their friends are available to hang out.

Google's  "Who's down" app is targetting college students and teenagers with social apps.

"Who's down"  is an invite-only app, its usage requires an invite code and is restricted to college students, according to TechCrunch. But to sign up on this app, the users don't need to provide an email address on a .edu domain. The sign up only requires the institution's name of a user.

With this new app, the users can passively see if their friends are "down" to do something, instead of sending out a group text message or surveying their friends one by one which may only to get delayed response or no response at all.

"Who's Down" app allows the users to let their friends know that their down to do something. The users can choose what sort of activity they feel like to do, and they will see who else of their friends are free and what they feel like to do.

The users who are available to hang out can slide the app and turn up the toggle to the "on" position, according to Tech Times.

This "on" position indicates that they're down to do whatever keyword they selected. The availability will last for up to three hours before it defaults to off.

The users can choose pre-defined keywords on this app or create the custom ones. For example, who's down for a "Movie", or a "Hike".

Once the status is set, the app will allow the users to browse what their friends are down for.  If the users find someone whose activity interest is close enough to them, and they want to hang with that person, they can easily start a chat to sort out the details of where and when to meet for a hangout. The conversations will disappear after 24 hours of last activity.

The friends who are also down to hang out can then agree to take the users' suggestions or include the users in whatever plans they might have made before.

According to Engadget, Google's "Who's Down" app is very similar to Apple's Find My Friends app and Foursquare's Swarm app. It is unclear how "Who's Down" app matches friends. It is said that it is possibe via Google contacts or based on people who the users chat with on Hangouts.