At some point or another, most of us have been guilty of overanalyzing text messages we've received from a love interest. Just what did he mean when he said "let's u n me hang out" and then added a winking emoticon? Did he want to hang out? If only there was a group of helpful strangers who could help decipher these cryptic messages.
Turns out that there is such a group.
They lurk on a website called HeTexted, which allows folks to upload text messages they've received anonymously in order for others to interpret any hidden meanings.
HeTexted was started this summer, by 29-year-old Lisa Winning and 25-year-old Carrie Henderson-McDermott, and it's just begun to get attention after a redesign went live on Sunday. The New York-based women told TODAY.com in an interview that they think they've "created something special" after taking discussions with girlfriends and turning them into an actual site (and an upcoming mobile app). Winning and Henderson-McDermott kept HeTexted in a private beta for quite some time and collected feedback from acquaintances.
In the end, they wound up with the current site, which allows folks to vote and comment on submissions, in order to show their approval (or disapproval) and offer advice.
The founders say that they do their best to monitor submissions, but we've noticed some very clearly faked iPhone screenshots on the site. They say that they hope their upcoming mobile app will reduce the number of faux submissions.
Whether real or phony, we do wonder how much useful advice submissions actually receive. Would a face-to-face conversation with the objects of our confusion not be more useful than a crowdsourced interpretation? Perhaps the real value of a site like HeTexted is to blow off some steam rather than to get a final word on topic.
Winning and Henderson-McDermott are working on gathering more gentlemen for their "Ask A Bro" feature, which allows users to submit questions, privately, to a team of "bros," either way. These fellas aren't experts, Winning told TODAY.com, but they do know a thing or two about dating. "Some of our strongest feedback is coming back from guys," she adds, suggesting that there's interest in expanding on this section.
When asked what their future plans are for their fledgling site, Winning and Henderson-McDermott didn't dare dream too much. "We're not looking to get ahead of ourselves," Winning says. "Maybe something like a book, maybe six months to a year down the line."
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