Daze is a text messaging platform for the sake of original communication that is already setting the internet on fire, before it even launches. Already having more than 156,000 waitlist members and millions of views on TikTok and Instagram, Daze has proven to be a Gen Z success. It is a product that aims to transform the messaging experience through AI-driven innovation and intuitive design.
What Makes Daze Different?
Daze is created with a young and tech-savvy audience in mind. This app allows users to send messages that bypass the blue and green bubbles of iMessage and WhatsApp. Rather, Daze offers freestyle messaging, more akin to making an Instagram story — the chat can be set up with text, images, stickers, GIFs and more. Text can be shifted and sequenced on the screen, which is a blank canvas for self-expression.
Willem Simons, Daze’s founder, describes the app as a “whole messenger” that competes with other messaging services while providing a bunch of fun and unique features. “What we’ve tried to do with Daze has been to build a fully featured messenger, that can compete with iMessage, WhatsApp, etc, but still have a lot of really fun, creative features,” Simons said.
AI-Powered Creativity
The other key aspect of Daze is utilizing AI for more creativity. While the app is still in its early stages, Daze already makes AI-based contributions to some of its creative tools, and will expand these integrations further. It is AI-driven and lets the user create cool animations and effects to make the chats more lively.
Building on Past Experience
Daze isn’t Simons’ first foray into the world of imaginative messaging. He also spent time prior to Daze on Muze, a similar project designed to open up messaging to creativity. Simons has taken the lessons of Muze and distilled them to Daze, a new platform that has become particularly popular among younger people.
Daze started out as a social calendar, but they decided to go messaging, and they redesigned it from scratch in React Native for simultaneous iOS and Android launches. Daze will finally go live in November after a successful beta with some 1,400 users.
Why Daze Appeals to Gen Z
The app’s emphasis on creative self-expression and ease of use makes it particularly appealing to Gen Z consumers. According to early beta testing, Daze plays well with younger audiences (the majority of users are 13- to 22-year-olds). Simons says that the free-form app and creativity tools of the app mean that people are able to communicate more freely than in traditional messaging apps.
The main beta test result was that Daze’s 60-day retention rate of message-sent users is more than 50%, which indicates that people are continuing to use the app for the long haul.
A Prelaunch Success Story
Even before its launch, Daze is getting rave reviews. Those were product demo videos that the app has used for marketing on social media like TikTok and Instagram, and the feedback has been overwhelming. Daze, whose one TikTok video has amassed more than 8 million views, has now landed with a generation of young people who appreciate both imagination and authenticity.
Funding and Future Plans
Daze has also secured $5.7 million in funding, which has come from investors like a16z, Kindred Ventures, and Betaworks, among others. The startup’s seven full-time employees are primarily located in New York, helping develop the app’s functionality and ready it for launch.
That investment and app interest imply that Daze might be poised to take the messaging app world by storm, especially among young consumers on the search for something new to connect with.
Conclusion: A New Era for Messaging?
The AI-based creativity and intuitive, user-friendly design of Daze could make a major imprint on the messaging app ecosystem. And with the app’s arrival getting closer to launch, it is crucial to know how it will play in the general market. The pre launch hype and early takeover suggest Daze is potentially the next big thing for Gen Z.
