Student-created app sheds light on UK’s nightlife

Bar Hop, a student-created app, allows users to connect and give live updates on the popularity of Lexington bars. Photo courtesy of Bar Hop Creators

By Ken Parton

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Two UK students believe their app, The Bar Hop, will be the next big thing.

Maged Saeed, a mathematical economics senior, and Alexander Hamilton, a computer science senior, created the app to help Lexingtonians decide which bars to visit on any given night.

Saeed called The Bar Hop “a mobile application that connects its users to the bars in real time.”

The app informs users about their friends’ location, the popularity of a bar that night and the male-to-female ratio, Saeed said, based on the number of users who check into the various places.

“We want to be the advertising source that gets users to decide which bar(s) they will go to so they can have the best overall nightlife,” Hamilton said.

The app will also eventually feature the corresponding drink menu and prices upon “check in,” and potentially advertise each bar’s specials and events that night.

Each user has his or her own username and can connect with and add friends via phone contacts and Facebook friends.

Hamilton and Saeed both got into programming with hopes of starting a business. They began creating the app in January and officially launched it in March.

Lexington is currently the only city that can access the app, but Hamilton and Saeed hope to expand to more cities as it becomes more popular.

The Bar Hop can be downloaded for free on the iTunes app store, can be found on Facebook and can also be followed on Twitter.

Although only Hamilton had built an app prior to The Bar Hop’s founding, both students contributed to every part of the app, Saeed said.

The apps slogan is “the future of nightlife,” and the co-founders are confident it can continue to grow, Hamilton said.

“It would be awesome if The Bar Hop spread to every college town and city in the U.S.,” Saeed said.