Howlr

Howlr is a furry dating app, similar to the mainstream app Grindr, that relies on user location to find other furries around the user.

It allows users to set up a very complete profile and join groups related to events they're attending, personal and artistic interests, and kinks they identify with and then filter users according to these.

It also features a chat and a Like system that allows a user to let someone know they like the profile, and eventually break the ice.

Release
The app was made available for beta testing on May 16, 2018, on Android, via a private link and apk file. Although the link was dispatched to no more than 200 people, the application counted over an overwhelming thousand users by the end of the beta, as a result of testers passing the link around.

On June 19, 2018, the app was made public on the Google PlayStore, a few days before the announced release date. In less than a week after the release, almost 2,000 new users joined in.

Although the general release was planned on June 22, 2018, the Howlr crew had announced possible delays for the iOS release, as they encountered technical issues with iOS development, as well as being slowed down by Apple for various reasons.

The iOS version was finally released on July 26, 2018, and bought over 2,000 new users in the first 48 hours.

As of July 31st, 2018, Howlr counts over 7800 users, with the constant growth of a few hundred users a day.

Controversy
After revelations regarding the founder, Stormy, came to light many in the furry community voiced their displeasure in using an app where the founder once had sex with animals. Stormy decided to step down in order to prevent Howlr collapsing due to the outcry from the community. Stormy resigned stating regret, but was outed due to the zeta symbol in his Twitter profile.

Currently the Apple Developer account is registered under Stormy's legal name.

Howlr Staff
The visuals of the app are made by Alex, for the logo and mascot of the app, and Ciryss, for the group pictograms.

Most of the development and the entire Public Relations field was previously taken care of by Stormy. Stormy announced his retirement from Howlr on 7th of August, 2018. . The Public Relations field was taken over by Tyke, who backed out from the project on August 8, 2018, following Stormy's departure.

As of today, the entire PR, development, financing, moderation, and maintenance of the app is handled by the remaining developers of the Howlr Lab.

The app remains registered under Stormy's name on the app stores, for practicality reasons, and for the developers to avoid having to restart the whole publishing process from square one.

Development
The app was created via Expo, a tool to create React Native application that is easily portable to iOS and Android.

The front-end of the app is made with React Native, while the back-end is Ruby on Rails.

The source code of the app is now available on the howlrapp Github.

Howlr Lab
The success of Howlr resulted in the developer team creating the Howlr Lab, a platform that would serve as a launcher for many other applications, websites, and services to help the community.

Financing
The Howlr dating app and all the following Howlr Lab apps will always remain free, and with no advertisement at all. Before the 7th of August, 2018, the estimated $2000 per year cost generated by the Howlr Lab was entirely taken care of by its previous owner, Stormy. He had mentioned the team's wish to work through donation campaigns or any other non-invading financing method, whenever he'd not be able to handle such costs anymore.

However, as of today, the stated cost of running the app is about 100€/month and is mainly supported by the Patreon subscribers (70€).