Find a Mass: There’s an app for that!

Want an easy way to find a Catholic Mass at a particular time in the Archdiocese of New Orleans? Download the free “Where Y’at” Mass finder app available for both iPhones (through iTunes) and android phones (through the Android market).
 
“We’ve gotten some good feedback from the people who are using it,” said Anna Toujas, associate director of the archdiocesan Office of Communications.

Toujas worked with HERO|farm marketing, public relations and design firm to create the app – the same company that created the Year of Family and Faith app for the archdiocese in 2013.

She said it took six months to develop, a little longer than planned, because the program platform HERO|farm used to create it – Bizness Apps – was being upgraded. The app’s look is identical to cards made available in recent months at Mass for parishioners to use to invite lapsed Catholics back to Mass, offering continuity in the message the archdiocese is sending out.

“It all connects as an invitation to come back to Mass,” Toujas said.

The “Where Y’at” app has two main functions: to find churches in the archdiocese and Mass times at churches in locations desired by the user.

“We felt a lot of questions we get through the Communications Office email centered on ‘Where can I find a Mass?’” Toujas said. “And, we really wanted users to be able to search by location. What was interesting for me to realize was all the churches that surround us here. You don’t see that in many archdioceses.”

Toujas said the app already has been tweaked for better functionality. One update is the inclusion of addresses under church names that pop up when a user is searching for a particular Mass time. And on iPhones, there is a blue dot that shows the user’s current location.

While Toujas said the archdiocese wanted to keep it as basic as possible to find a Mass at a particular time and location, other elements were necessary to be accepted by Apple.

Additional features added include an archdiocesan “calendar”; a “messages” function that gives updates and daily posts of the day’s readings by the archdiocesan Communications Office; local “news” feed from the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ website; an “about us” description of the app; and a “more” feature that tells users how to contact the archdiocese, join the mailing list, access the archdiocese’s YouTube channel, access Catholic News Service national news and a link to the United States Conference of Catholic bishops where the daily readings derive and more.

“We really wanted people to have an easy way to find Mass times without a lot of other information,” Toujas said. “That’s why the two main buttons are “Church Search” and “Mass Finder.”

More than 1,000 people have already downloaded the app since it launched in mid-June.

“The main reason we created this is to remind people that this is an invitation back to Mass,” Toujas said.

Christine Bordelon can be reached at [email protected].