I was first introduced to PynG this past summer by Minnesota Gymnastics alumni Zack Chase and Yoshi Morinishi, who had been working on developing the app for some time. They asked me if I’d be willing to test out the app before they officially released it on the App Store.
Like any loyal gymnastics brethren, I obliged and I was eager to be a part of the startup of a promising new development.
Integrated with Facebook, PynG is an app that allows users to create an event and select from their friends list who they want to invite and where they want to go, be it meeting up for dinner or organizing a study session at a local coffee shop.
After using the app for a few weeks, I was immediately drawn to its simplicity. It separates itself from a traditional Facebook event due to the map that already has popular locations built-in, as well as the straightforwardness it brings to planning out rides and reservations.
To start, simply open PynG and select a location on your map. From there you can either immediately create the event, or click on the tab to view more information on the establishment. If you decide the restaurant, coffee shop, or lounge suits the event you’re looking for, you can then make a reservation or reserve an Uber to the location if a ride is needed. If you’re unsure of where you want to go or are new to the area, you can select from the list of categories to specify your search results.
Once you’ve selected your desired location, you can then add event specifications such as name, date, start time, and whether or not your invitees can invite friends of their own. After the specifications are to your liking, select “Add friends” so you can choose from your Facebook friends list who you’d like to invite.
I recently used PynG to organize a study session with a few of my friends from my French class. Since two of them did not live on campus, we decided to meet halfway and try out Urban Bean, a coffee shop downtown. PynG made reaching out to them easy and helped the couple of us who did, indeed, live on campus arrange for a ride.
After using PynG for a few months now, I have come to favor it for organizing get-togethers compared to creating regular group iMessages or Facebook invites. It is a culmination of a multitude of different applications into one user-friendly package. It eliminates the need for an individual app for each function of event planning, such as Urbanspoon for restaurant discovery.
PynG is extremely new on the market, so there are still plenty of updates and UI tweaks expected in the coming weeks and months. Even as it exists now, PynG’s user-friendliness and third party app integration makes it a necessity for anyone who’s looking for a simpler way to organize events.
PynG is currently free on both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, so give it a shot and see what you think. The developers are eager to hear your feedback and accommodate to your requests.
