Raya is a private, membership-based, social network application for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

, launched in 2015. The application was initially a

dating app An online dating application is an online dating service presented through a mobile phone application (app), often taking advantage of a smartphone's GPS location capabilities, always on-hand presence, easy access to digital photo galleries and ...

, but over time has added features to promote professional networking and social discovery.

History

Raya was conceived by Daniel Gendelman in 2014 and went live in February 2015. The app is available on Apple devices. In 2016, Raya acquired Chime, a video messaging startup.

Format

Users link their profile to their

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

account, and must create a photo montage set to music for their profile.

Secrecy

Raya is not advertised and grows by word of mouth. If a user screenshots a profile, the app warns them that they may be removed from the platform. In May 2021, a user of Raya who met actor

Matthew Perry Matthew Langford Perry (born August 19, 1969) is an American-Canadian actor. He is best known for his role as Chandler Bing on the NBC television sitcom '' Friends'' (1994–2004). As well as starring in the short-lived television series '' ...

through a match on the app created a controversy by sharing her conversation with the actor on

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

. The TikTok video went viral but has since been deleted. The user who had shared the video has been removed from Raya for violation of the privacy policy of the app.

References

Online dating services of the United States Mobile social software 2015 software Computer-related introductions in 2015 {{Mobile-software-stub