Growing up queer while struggling with one’s identity can be an isolating experience in a cis-heteronormative world. We spoke to the creator of a home-grown social application that aims to connect LGBTQIA+ individuals and create digital safe spaces for the community
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Launched in
June 2020, âAs You Are' is among India's only social applications for the
LGBTQIA+ community. Created by Sunali Aggarwal, a UX designer, the app began as a matchmaking app exclusively built for the Indian LGBTQIA+ community. Although the platform began as a dating app, with 'Matchbox' being its prime feature, Sunali soon realised that the community needed an avenue for safe conversations and more than a space for swiping profiles.
Post that, the main focus was to provide the Indian LGBTQIA+ community a safe space to be themselves, whether they want to date to just make friends. This
Pride Month, we spoke to Aggarwal to understand the inner workings of her queer social application, and how it helps members of the community to express freely, and find each other.
What was the major objective behind âAs You Are'?
I am a serial entrepreneur, design practitioner and thinker who believes in design-led innovation which is customer centric. After the landmark 2018 judgement striking down Section 377, I heard from a few of my friends about the lack of safe online dating space for the Indian LGBTQIA+ community. These conversations prompted me to explore a space dedicated exclusively to the Indian queer community.
After being faced with some hesitation among Indian investors, âAs You Are' sought investors overseas. We found our first-ever partner to raise investments via Owain Morgan. Coming from the private equity space, Morgan partnered with us and helped raise Angel money via compulsory convertible debentures, which is largely from queer couples and Indian-origin entrepreneurs in the US.
How is âAs You Are' different from other dating apps?
A key differentiator setting apart 'As You Are' is its manual verification of profiles, to ensure that all profiles on the app are genuine. Besides matchmaking, users can try new features like 'Group Chat' and 'WE, As You Are Community' to connect with other queer users.
We also don't pressure people to post their photos because we understand queer people "in the closet" might not be comfortable with this aspect, and the manual verification process ensures there is a real person behind the profile, although there is no photo on the profile.
Along with the feedback from the users, the queer members on the team help to make the app an inclusive space for the Indian LGTBQIA+ community. Whether it's the verification process or the options in the drop down, our efforts at âAs You Are' are focused on making the space safer and inclusive for the Indian queer community.
How critical is the role of the digital medium to find and connect with queer community?
Studies have shown that being a part of a community where one's identity is normalised is critical to the mental health of an LGBTQIA+ individual. Our efforts have been in offering the Indian queer community a safe space for them to just be themselves and find friends who would accept them as they are.
That said, most major cities have groups and events that LGBTQIA+ individuals can just step into to find like-minded people, but it does become harder for people in the Tier 2 cities. Digital in many ways has been a crucial medium that offered the community the means to connect to each other. In our efforts, we aim to offer a safe digital space exclusively for queer community in India.
Where are your users from? How has the response been?
Early on, âAs You Are' saw a lot of growth. Being an Indian app in the matchmaking space, the response from the Indian community was inspiring. Within nine months of the launch of our Android app, we reached 10,000 users. Although there were other players in the market, being a home-grown app, we did stand out and there were people who preferred it because it was an Indian-made app. We had an advantage over other players in this space, because most of them did not have a dedicated focus on the Indian LGBTQIA+ community. Currently, we have more than 65k downloads and around 32k active users.
With our new additions, community, group chat, events and job board we are aiming to promote the app to ensure it reaches the people in the community who actually need it. Our main aim is for queer people to have an opportunity to share their stories or opinions and find a sense of community and belonging. Apart from the major cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, we have a good number of users from cities like Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Chandigarh, and Jaipur.
What are the processes in place for verification?
Since we don't pressurise our users to update their photo, although there is no photo on the profile, the manual verification process ensures there is a real person behind the profile. We ask the users to send us a selfie that we use to match with the information they provide on their profile. This image does not come up on their profile, and we just update a "verified" badge on their profile once they clear the verification process.
Queer individuals are at the receiving end of harassment, and bullying across online mediums. How safe is a digital safe space?
There is no dearth of unsafe spaces for LGBTQIA+ individuals on the internet. On social media and chat apps, there is a possibility of one's phone number or details getting into the wrong person's hands. Closeted LGBTQIA+ individuals especially worry about their family or friends finding out about their identity.
Keeping all that in perspective, we at âAs You Are' gave the user the ability to choose and give out information they prefer, whether it is their name or photo. As long as the verification is done, the users can choose to use an anonymous name and we don't push them to update a photo. We envision âAs You Are' as a space for LGBTQIA+ community to express themselves without fear and shame while being able to build relationships, friendships and community for themselves.
