by Rob
29. February 2012 04:42
Gainesville, FL—Feb. 29, 2012—RoomSync today announced the launch of RoomSync Mobile, the company’s mobile version of its popular Facebook app for college roommate selection. The new apps for both Android and iPhone let users experience the innovative roommate-finding process instantly from their hand-held devices.
While 96 percent of college students are on Facebook, 76 percent of those students access the social network straight from the mobile app (Noel-Levitz, 2012). With such high mobile usage and current users already accessing RoomSync from their mobile devices, the company believes the addition of its own mobile platform will further increase student engagement and roommate-selection.
On RoomSync Mobile, students will be afforded the same roommate matching experience from their Android and iPhone devices as they do on their desktop browser. Once someone has registered their account, they can continue the matching process at any time from the palm of their hand. The app has already launched on Android and is expected to debut on iPhone in the upcoming weeks.
Currently more than 30 university housing departments use RoomSync’s Facebook-integrated roommate matching solution. Via RoomSync, students browse through potential roommates based on lifestyle preferences, academic majors, mutual friends, and more. The app also suggests roommates and allows people to search for roommates by interests listed on Facebook. Allowing students to choose their own roommate puts power into the hands of students, making them more accountable, resulting in reduced roommate conflicts.
Research conducted at Michigan State University shows that roommate conflict is one of the five leading risk factors of college dropouts; RoomSync’s Facebook app aims to reduce this conflict and increase student success. The University of Florida, one of the company’s clients, collected data after the first year of implementation, and 65 percent of hall staff surveyed reported a decrease in roommate conflicts.
“Prior to using RoomSync, we found that students would go to Facebook to research their assigned roommates, so RoomSync is a natural fit for our housing department,” said Sean Killion, M.B.A., Assistant Director for Assignments & Billing at Temple University. “By operating as a Facebook app, residents are excited to select their own roommates on RoomSync and they intuitively understand how to use the app with little or no direction.”
The company believes offering the service on mobile adds an even deeper and more effective experience for the user. “Mobile access to the RoomSync app gives students real-time notifications regarding requests, announcements and more. We believe the availability of instantaneous matching information will create an even higher level of user engagement and satisfaction, and of course, will enable more students to connect with their perfect roommate,” said Michael Hacker, Technical Co-founder and President of RoomSync.
About RoomSync:
RoomSync is one of the leading Facebook apps for selecting college roommates. Founded in 2007, RoomSync currently has more than 30 university clients and 40 off-campus apartment clients. Through the RoomSync app, students are able to easily identify potential roommates based on information found through Facebook. To date, more than 30,000 students have used RoomSync to identify potential roommates. A 2009 fbFund finalist, RoomSync is privately held and is headquartered in Gainesville, Florida.
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