Stray Boots started out as a basic SMS app, that let users enjoy a gamified city tour experience by answering questions about various nearby establishments sent to their phone via text. For an SMS application, StrayBoots seemed to have something great going, seeing as each game costs $12. Again, for an SMS app.
But as time goes on, Stray Boots has switched things up a bit to include full-fledged smartphone applications. iOS has been available for a while, and today the company is announcing a brand new Android application.
According to founder and CEO Avi Millman, users are reporting a much better experience using graphics-rich apps as opposed to basic SMS, which may lead the company to phase out SMS altogether.
The main concern in building out the apps was maintaining simplicity. City tours don’t necessarily appeal to Gen Y as much as they do older generations, though that’s not to say 21-year olds don’t love exploring NYC’s financial district. To that end, StrayBoots chose SMS to make sure that adoption was never a hurdle to playing the game.
However, the new iOS app has been ranked 9.1 out of 10 in usability, which is a signal to Millman that simplicity was not substituted for features. Plus, over 90 percent of users who were using the SMS version of the game actually had a smartphone. 93 percent of those who’ve used both native and SMS versions have said they prefer the app experience.
“Those results make us comfortable that we’re nailing the usability of the app, and while we must maintain to be mindful of that as we roll out new features, we feel good about this first major phase,” said Millman. “Assuming we can continue our success on usability and (near) universal accessibility, SMS will play a much smaller roll, and we will eventually phase it out.”
The Android app is available now in Google Play.
