Google is working on a new social networking app called Shoelace which doesn’t aim to be the next Facebook but instead focuses at organizing local events and activities. You use it by listing your interests in the app, allowing it to recommend a series of “hand-picked” local activities which it calls “Loops.” You can also organize your own events, and there’s a map interface to view and RSVP to other people’s Loops.
Shoelace comes after the company recently shut down Google+, its most prominent attempt at building a social media platform that rivaled the likes of Twitter and Facebook. However, rather than trying to create a new all-encompassing social network like its rivals, Shoelace seems to have much more modest ambitions that take aim at Facebook’s ubiquitous Events functionality.
According to Android Police Shoelace bears a striking similarity to Schemer, another experimental event organizing app from Google that launched in 2011. Unfortunately, the app was shut down just three years later in 2014 with few mourning its passing.
You can’t use Shoelace yet
Shoelace is currently in an invite-only testing phase on iOS and Android, but you can fill out this form if you’d like to get involved. You need to have a Google account to sign in. Unfortunately it’s also only available in USA and to more specific New York City at the moment; the team says it’s hoping to expand soon.
