Daze: The AI-Powered Messaging App Taking Gen Z by Storm Before Launch

I'm #62935 on the waitlist for Daze, an expressive messenger app that's already got over 150,000 signups

Sometimes, the best way to sell something is to let the product speak for itself. This has been messaging app Daze's approach, to the tune of 8 million views on their most popular TikTok alone. So, what's the draw? Let me paint you a picture: Daze pitches itself as an expressive messaging platform that offers chatters a blank canvas to scrawl all over as opposed to the straight-laced speech bubble back and forth most of us are used to. Their TikTok pitches up with teen drama 'storylines' such as that old chestnut of tick box love confessions to target a distinctly Gen Z audience, but there's a playful, remixing aspect to Daze that's bound to appeal across age groups. According to TechCrunch, these widely watched product demo TikTok videos have resulted in 156,000 signups to its waitlist ahead of Daze's November 4th launch. Besides sketching up a storm, there's a suite of creative tools on offer, from libraries of gifs and stickers, to photos and fonts. I, for one, can't wait to terrorise my contacts list with some truly retina scarring, noughties era word art missives. To power the app's collaborative canvas vibe, Daze is described as 'leveraging' AI. In conversation with TechCrunch, project founder Willem Simons didn't go into detail about what sort of heavy-lifting AI is doing for Daze, instead explaining the app's position in the market. The New York-based entrepreneur said: "Our goal with Daze has been to make a feature complete messenger that is competitive with iMessage, WhatsApp, etc., while still having a suite of really fun and creative features. You can quickly type a message and press send, or drag the message anywhere within the chat. It is easy to use and utilitarian, but also very free and unconstrained." But, while those product demo videos are very slick, does Daze have any staying power? It's currently in testing with around 1,400 invite-only beta users, and one source close to the company shared with TechCrunch that, of the users that have sent a message on Daze, over 50% of them were still using the app 60 days later. So it may not just be a passing daydream after all. You'll not have to wait much longer to find out for yourself. Daze has been built using React Native, meaning that it'll launch simultaneously on both iOS and Android devices from November 4th. Hold on, someone signed up using my referral link and I've been bumped up the waitlist...to #2428. Yeah, I've definitely got my feet on the ground now.

Daze, a creative, AI-powered messaging app for Gen Z, is blowing up prelaunch

On TikTok, Daze's most popular video has been viewed 8 million times. Across TikTok and Instagram, the startup behind a new messaging app aimed at Gen Z, has seen around 48 million combined views. Pre-launch, the app's waitlist is already bursting with roughly 156,000 signups. Driving the demand for this next-generation alternative to iMessage and WhatsApp isn't some smooth-talking influencer or paid advertising, but simply product demo videos of the app in action, which have impressed a younger audience. Founded by New York-based serial entrepreneur Willem Simons, Daze offers a freestyle messaging app that takes its clues from social media. Similar to crafting an Instagram story using a variety of fonts, styles, graphics, and more, users' chats are no longer limited to blue and green bubbles. Instead, multi-colored messages can float across the screen complemented by photos, graphics, stickers, GIFs, drawings, decorated backgrounds, and more. In addition, the app is currently leveraging AI to help power some of its creative tools; it plans to deeply integrate more AI-based technology in the future. "Our goal with Daze has been to make a feature complete messenger that is competitive with iMessage, WhatsApp, etc., while still having a suite of really fun and creative features," Simons told TechCrunch. "You can quickly type a message and press send, or drag the message anywhere within the chat. It is easy to use and utilitarian, but also very free and unconstrained." This isn't the first time Simons has experimented with this idea. For several years, ending in 2022, he was working on an app with a similar vibe called Muze. Like Daze, Muze redesigned mobile messaging as a free-form canvas for creativity with a similar set of tools. But while Muze was jointly founded by Simons along with Douglas Witte and Grant Davis with Fenner Stevens as CEO, Daze is solely Simons' project. The new app, which is a pivot from Daze's beginnings as a social calendar, has been built entirely in React Native to ensure it could launch simultaneously on iOS and Android. Currently, Daze's launch is scheduled for November 4. Ahead of this, the app has been in early testing with around 1,400 invite-only beta users. While beta metrics still have to be proven out in the real world, one promising figure shared by a source familiar with the company's tests indicates that Daze's 60-day retention for people who have sent a message on the app is more than 50%. Not surprisingly, this freeform messenger is skewing younger, with most testers falling in the 13-to-22-year-old demographic, Simons notes. The startup's team of seven full-time and one part-time are largely based in New York, with only a few people working remotely. Prelaunch, Daze has raised $5.7 million in funding from a16z, Kindred Ventures, Alpaca Ventures, Uncommon Projects, Betaworks, Maveron, 35 Ventures, New Wave, Antoine Martin, and others.

What is Daze? A wannabe Gen Z messaging app is viral on TikTok

Daze has been getting lots of views on TikTok. Credit: Screenshots: TikTok / @daze.chat The next big thing might be a messaging app called Daze -- but it hasn't even launched yet. Because seemingly everything in 2024 has an AI component, yes, Daze does incorporate AI. It's a messaging app aimed at Gen Z that is designed to look free-flowing with lots of different fonts, colors, graphics, movement, stickers, drawings, and more. TikToks posted by the app have gone viral -- the most watched has eight million views. The TikTok shows a chat where someone talks to their crush and uses Daze's interactive features, such as drawing and games, to flirt and see if they like them back. TechCrunch published a detailed article on Daze "blowing up" ahead of its planned launch on Nov. 4. It reported that Daze had 156,000 sign-ups on its waitlist. Still, right now the app has roughly 1,400 invite-only beta users. It seems like Daze is positioning itself as a more fun messaging app and has used AI to help power some of the creative tools. "Our goal with Daze has been to make a feature complete messenger that is competitive with iMessage, WhatsApp, etc., while still having a suite of really fun and creative features," founder Willem Simons told TechCrunch. "You can quickly type a message and press send, or drag the message anywhere within the chat. It is easy to use and utilitarian, but also very free and unconstrained." It obviously remains to be seen if there is a market for an AI-focused messaging app aimed at being more fun. Even if Daze were the next big thing, oftentimes the next big thing ends up being mostly hype and little substance. Remember Clubhouse?