TruFace - Allowing Users to Confess Within Social Groups and Friends Anonymously
TruFace is India's first anonymous network allowing users to speak the truth, speak up about concerning topics, or simply confess within their peers or confession pages.
TruFace allows users to maintain two profiles in parallel, the first a standard user profile and the second, a completely incognito alias jocularly captioned "ShadowMode". The Profiles (and Pages) constitute a fully functioning social network, the distinguishing feature being "The ability to say whatever you want, and still have people care" alongside college confession pages.
TruFace app is available for Android and iOS users.
Idea Generation
As is the case with the birth of most ideas, in pursuing their vision for TruFace, the founders Saksham Bhasin and Vidur Hans have come a long way. The idea of online social anonymity is not new, and they have no qualms about it. After observing behavioral patterns with regard to the frequency, format and most importantly content being posted on several social networks, they were able to identify a gap in the market, one that is now occupied by Truface.
TruFace offers a one stop shop for anonymity based networking, a concept they claim, did not previously exist.
Special features
TruFace rests on two central features, each of which have been designed from the ground up to deliver an unpredicted networking experience, one they feel will provide a new platform for people to begin sharing ‘real’ content.
The first of these, is as simple as a swipe, which allows users to instantly change from their normal profiles (based on their real identities) to an incognito mode called “shadowmode.” This alias constitutes the anonymous element, and by extension, the central functionality of the application.
The second of these, is the fact that TruFace operates within a network. While that may sound relatively commonplace, it’s a basic feature that’s missing from virtually every confessional application to date. There have been aspirant services, some current, and some deceased that provide the anonymity but no network. In simple words, the simply aren’t able to create an ‘interest’ beyond a certain point. While these competitors work based on proximity and popularity alone, TruFace allows users to build a full network (the standard process of adding friends and following pages) within which to wield their ‘shadows’.
Funding raised
Built on the “blood, sweat and rivers of tears” of the founders, TruFace is a product of their own making, start to finish. With their beta fast gaining traction and an upcoming update, TruFace is ready with a smorgasbord of new, undisclosed features, and further refinements ready for implementation, eagerly awaiting further funding.
Challenges
Their greatest challenge has been the actual creation and development. Limited by their lack of a background in IT, these major tasks were outsourced to an external outfit, who they refuse to name.
Of their plagued hire, Co-founder Saksham says, “It’s an entirely different language, and neither Vidur nor I know it. That makes communicating with our developers understandably laborious. Unfortunately, we’re entirely invested in this company, but with the right backing, nothing would be better than an in-house team.”
Promised delivery of their brainchild within 6 months, the duo continues to wait well over two years, while their “evil” team of developers continue to fleece them dry, with lies, treachery and deceit being the broad themes of the arduous relationship.
Traction
While they maintain that the TruFace appeal is broad, their chosen point of entry, akin to their allegedly simpler counterparts, is universities and colleges. Their 1500+ strong user base is the product of hardworking interns (students of Delhi University) introducing TruFace to their peers. The biggest challenge in gaining traction is gaining the trust of users, and ensuring them that their shadow modes cannot be tracked.
Marketing plans
On ground marketing in colleges is the first stage in our plan. College students tend to be more active on social networks than most other demographics. The next stage would be high schools, although direct entry is much more restricted. They have also planned to market TruFace to organisations, through an extension of their ‘Pages’ feature. The plans seem to be ready, all they lack are the resources to execute.
