Why should humans get all the credit for the great content animals create for social media?

That adorable video of the bird whistling along to the radio? The great gif of a cat chasing a laser? Every heart-melting photo of puppies snuggling in the sun? None of those Instagram hearts or Facebook likes comes with a “Good Boy!” for the innovative animals behind the images.

Kris Nielsen and his business partners noticed this problem a few years ago, and they decided to do something about it.

“We realized that none of the vehicles for sharing animal content ever reward the animal itself. We wanted to create a network that’s for pets primarily and allows them to have credit for the content they’re creating every single day,” Nielsen said.

How Furency works

To use Furency, a pet has their human helper download the free app from Apple’s App Store and create a profile for them. This allows the pet to post their own pictures and videos and to view those shared by other animals. On Furency, animals “chase” rather than follow each other, and they can also “like” content that gets their tails wagging.

The name Furency refers to the points system within the app.

“Based on the interactiveness of the content – how many people like or share it, how many other animals follow it – the pet’s Furency increases, giving more credit to animals that are cuter or cuddlier than other animals,” Nielsen said.

Eventually, the Furency team plans to incorporate perks that animals earn once they reach a certain Furency level.

“So for instance, PetSmart might give a $20 gift certificate to someone once they reach 1,000 Furency points,” Nielsen said.

Multiple pets can share a single human assistant on the app, ensuring that all furry family members can be involved. Furancy’s second release also introduced multi-pet sharing.

“If an animal has multiple human assistants, then multiple human assistants can manage and post content on behalf of that animal. So if the animal wants to put together a video or create a piece of content, it doesn’t matter what parent is in the room so they can capture that,” Nielsen said.

Sit – Stay – Listen: Learning from users

Furency hasn’t had many struggles or setbacks so far, a fact which Nielsen attributes to their attention to user feedback.

“We didn’t want to launch [the app] and have it be this perfect idea of what we wanted it to be,” said Nielsen. “We wanted to launch a basic app and get feedback and try to iterate based on the response we got from the users.”

Through this feedback, Nielsen and his partners learned that users desired the multi-pet sharing feature, which they added shortly after. They also added more animal species as options within the app; currently, almost the entire domestic animal kingdom can participate in Furency.

Graduating from obedience school

The first version of Furency was released in November 2015, with a second version available in January 2016.

“It took us about a year to put it together, and we were thankful to get through the application submission process through Apple fairly quickly,” said Nielsen.

And while this success might seem a good excuse to lay back for a little cat nap, the Furency team has no plans to call off the dogs.

Release the hounds

Furency’s plan for the near future includes expanding into the Android market and adding location support. While the app will remain free for users, Nielsen and his partners plan to monetize it through in-app advertising from local, pet-oriented businesses.

“So Three Dog Bakery could put on a pet brunch one Sunday, and we could advertise that to animals within the platform,” said Nielsen.

Location support will also allow pets to connect with other animals in their areas and organize meet-ups with or without an advertising component.

“The location support is the largest component to come next. Our team is located in Kansas City, and we’d like to grow this in the Midwest primarily and do a good job of getting a good share of the animal market here before we expand further,” said Nielsen.

And once Furency is KC’s top dog?

“I think until every pet in the animal world is represented, we really have a long way to go,” said Nielsen. “In three to five years, I’d like to say that we’re represented by the animal community throughout the country and are able to share content from animals throughout the US.”

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Sarah Kugler is an Iowa-based writer. Her professional interests include the animal health care industry and the future of the liberal arts in higher education.