Singer Taio Cruz Debuts KeWe Social App

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By Brian Anthony Hernandez2013-08-17 22:36:11 UTC

Singer-songwriter Taio Cruz, who famously performed during the London Olympics closing ceremony in 2012, is entering the social networking cosmos with a new app intended to mash up functions from existing apps such as Facebook, Foursquare, Instagram and WhatsApp.

KeWe — a portmanteau of "Key" and "We" (as in "KeWe is the Key to the We") — is Cruz's first foray into the app market. Cruz's firm, Tourean, gave Mashable an exclusive look at the KeWe iOS app, which was just unleashed as a pre-release in the iTunes Store.

"KeWe combines social with messaging but without forcing the user to do either," Cruz told Mashable. "With Facebook, as soon as you become friends, you are automatically connected. With Twitter, a mutual follow allows for direct messages. With KeWe you can follow or not, and connect or not — the choice is up to the user."

The app mimics Facebook's News Feed layout, Instagram's photo and filter functions, WhatsApps' multimedia messenger and Foursquare's Explore tab to see who's nearby.

While Foursquare's Explore map only shows a user's nearby friends, KeWe's optional "Around Me" feature displays all close-by KeWe users who have opted to freely reveal their locations.

"KeWe bridges these two worlds of social and messaging into one place, making your messaging experience richer and providing your social experience with the option to connect," Cruz elaborated.

Aside from creating a profile and following people, the KeWe app lets you: