HalloApp

Established by Neeraj Arora and Michael Donohue, HalloApp is a social network utilized for communication.

Users can download and sign up on HalloApp in both Apple’s App Store for iOS and Google Play for Android devices. HalloApp was created for group and individual chats with friends and family. To find people, users need the phone number of the person they're seeking. The app's messages are encrypted, and the company reiterates there are no ads. HalloApp is divided into four major tabs: a home feed, portraying posts from friends; listed group chats; individual chats; and settings. The general aesthetic is minimalist. There are no algorithms that sort posts and group chats. HalloApp plans to charge users for features using a subscription, mirroring the monetization of WhatsApp before it was purchased by Facebook.

The creators of HelloApp, Neeraj Arora and Michael Donohue, worked at WhatsApp before and after it was purchased by Facebook for $22 billion. Arora was the Chief Business Officer at WhatsApp until 2018 and was instrumental in the negotiation of the WhatsApp Facebook deal. Donohue was the engineering director at WhatsApp for nine years, before leaving Facebook in 2019.

Neeraj Arora explains the company's philosophy in a blog post:

“Imagine your friends online were your real friends. Imagine your feed wasn’t filled with people and posts you didn’t care about. Imagine scrolling through meaningful moments and seeing what you wanted you to see—not what the algorithm wanted you to see. Imagine not being treated like a product.”