I ‘ve often found some of the simplest iPhone apps to be amongst the best iPhone apps. Bump is another good example of this. The app ‘s sole purpose is to help you very quickly exchange contact information with other iPhone users, by just bumping hands.
I got a chance to try Bump out today, and it works very well.
Using Bump is very easy, as it should be with a simple, single-purpose app. Setup takes very little time. You simply choose between creating a new contact which will be the one used for information exchange, or suing an existing one from your Address Book. I already had a contact entry for myself, so it took me less than a minute.
You can choose which elements of your contact info to share when using Bump “ with a simple tap letting you toggle On or Off the inclusion of your phone number, photo, email address, physical / street address, and the entire Contact card.
The app works on the original iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iPod Touch “ and will soon be coming to ‘many other devices ‘. It also works over any network connection “ EDGE, 3G, or WiFi.
It ‘s a free app, so I had it installed and setup prior to meeting up with a friend for lunch today. We talked about a bit when we first sat down, and we were both interested in testing it out “ so he quickly installed it and set his up as well. Then we both launched the app on our phones, waited a few seconds for it to recognize that it had a 3G network connection, and then bumped fists quickly. First time round, we were too lame on the fist bump, barely making contact. Second time we got it right and each of us instantly got a confirmation request, asking us to verify that we wanted to share contact info with the other. We accepted those messages and boom, the entries were added to our address books.
Bump was also clever enough to recognize that each of us already had an existing contact in the Address Book for the other, and prompted as to whether we wanted to ‘merge ‘ the entries. We both said yes, and ended up with updated contact info for each other.
The only glitch we had was that I asked for my home address info not to be shared, but it was. This may have been user error though “ I ‘ll test some more soon.
The app looks great though. It would be super useful at meetings, seminars, conferences, or any sort of events where you meet a lot of people in a short space of time and want a quick way to get their information. If this gets widely adopted among mobile devices, it could eliminate or sharply reduce the need for collecting of / scanning of business cards.
Bump is in the App Store now, and is a free app.
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TAGS: Bump, iphone apps
