Single Player Mode: Designing Asynchronous Fun for Here.fm
How do you keep a social platform fun when there’s no one else around? Here.fm was built for togetherness. Friends hanging out in shared rooms, decorating, and watching content together. But users needed something to do when friends weren’t online. I designed a suite of asynchronous experiences that kept users entertained, expressive, and connected, even when alone.
Role
Founding Product Designer
Client
Here.fm
Year
2023
retention
messages sent
monthly active users
How can Here shift from synchronous to async?
Here’s engagement was built around being in a room together, live with friends. But outside of those shared moments, users had no reason to stay. Usage data and user interviews showed sharp drop-offs. The challenge was clear: give users incentive to stick around when their friends aren’t. Through testing and exploration, I identified three async pillars to build daily habit: a highly expressive interactive chat, immersive customizable profiles, and personalization across every surface.
No friends online
Mixpanel - User Retention
Profiles, Chat, Personalization
Chat dialed up to 11. Fun, quirky, and deeply personal DMs.
Chat became the core driver of async engagement. I designed a messaging experience with the same playful energy as a live Here.fm room, using reactions, animations, custom interfaces, and sound-driven features across both room and private chat. The mobile app ensured users could stay connected even when away from their computers.
Room Chat + DMs
DMs - Lobby
Chat Features
Mobile - iOS
Immersive profiles. Your personality, visualized.
For users without friends on Here, I redesigned profiles as smaller, personal spaces for self-expression. Modular, interactive profile cards let users display moods, playlists, favorite rooms, and more, creating lightweight social touchpoints others could browse and react to. These profiles encouraged sharing on social media and gave users a meaningful solo activity that still connected them to others over time.
Profile Evolution
Profile Cards
Moods - Edit & Reply
Personalization everywhere: Let the chaos commence
As users personalized their profiles, that creativity began spilling over into the rest of the product. We leaned into it. Custom room themes and ambient lighting, Mood-based statuses, Personalized cursors, hands, and emoji reactions, Decorative sound cues and animations.
Personalization
More activity, more energy, more belonging.
The combination of these three efforts increased retention by 46% and resulted in over 30M messages being sent and around 200k average monthly users.
Results