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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

'Pssst! The guy with the iPhone likes you'

By: Carolin Vesely

Posted: 05/3/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Winking across a crowded room is so last century. Ditto for cheesy pickup lines.

A pair of Winnipeg-based web developers say they're bringing flirting into the digital age with a new mobile application that lets your fingers do the sweet talking.

Who needs face time -- or the risk of being rejected or getting your face slapped -- when you can make a playful overture to a complete stranger from the safety of your smartphone?

The app is called Flurt. It's a "location-aware" social network that allows iPhone and Android users to send anonymous messages or "flurts" to any smartphone-wielding cutie within a 150-metre radius.

"Social media is huge right now, but it's mainly restricted to people you know," says Varun Mehra, 25, who co-developed Flurt with Jeff Friesen, 23, at Tipping Canoe Ltd., a Winnipeg-based technology incubator.

"Who hasn't, during the course of their day, seen someone across the street they've wanted to compliment or flirt with? This is an easy way to break the ice."

According to the website (www.flurt.me), the Flurt app provides "a totally consequence-free way of telling a crush or someone you don't know at all what's on your mind."

It's a public application, so anyone can be flirted with, whether they have the app or not. However, in order to view all the flurts being sent by everyone within 150 metres, or to actually respond to one, you'll need to install the app.

Each Flurt user registers a profile, but it only includes gender and hair colour. Photo is optional.

So let's say you're hanging out at the mall and you see an interesting blond wearing a grey hoodie sitting in the food court and you decide to send a flurt. Being a location-aware application, the Flurt app will check to see if there are any blond individuals of your preferred gender in the vicinity, Mehra explains. If there are, they will all appear on your screen and you can then direct the flurt specifically at the blond who caught your eye.

"Once a direct flurt is made, you can then have a regular chat," he says, adding that potential flirtees don't even have to have the app open and active to receive a flurt -- which must be 240 characters or less. They'll receive a notification alert on their phone.

And if you're not interested in @brownHairedBoy?

Just hit delete or turn off your phone.

Flurt can be downloaded for free through the iTunes App Store or Android Market.

carolin.vesely@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 3, 2011 D1

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