We all know the drill by now “ there are 17 zillion or so apps in the iPhone App Store and it ‘s getting harder to find good apps, apps that suit our own individual needs and wants. There are a rapidly growing number of apps and services that offer to help us out in this area “ and Chomp is one of the latest entries in the field.
It ‘s also the most fun and social feeling app of this type that I ‘ve come across so far. I was lucky enough to get contacted by Chomp ‘s CEO, Ben Keighran, this week “ and as I told him I ‘m a fan of the app, I got to ask him a few questions about the app.
Read on for a quick rundown of the app ‘s features, some thoughts on what makes it the most compelling ‘discovery app ‘ for me, and some of the info Ben provided
What Does It Do?
Chomp offers up Live iPhone App Reviews “ via its Twitter-like timeline view. In fact it feels a little like a Twitter and Yelp mashup (with a tiny bit of Friendfeed thrown in) for iPhone apps. Here ‘s a look at the main timeline for live app reviews:
The reviews in the app are mostly short and sharp, as they have to be with a 60 characters limit on their length. The Live Apps Reviews listing shows the reviewer name, app title, a heart symbol for liked apps, a broken heart for disliked apps, and the reviewer ‘s comments if there are any. With a single tap on any of the entries you go to a screen where you can see more details on the app reviewed as well on the reviewer.
On the app details screen, you can tap to get the app (iTunes link), tap to review it yourself, see the totals for its likes and dislikes, see all review on it, get more info (App Store descriptions), share it via email or Facebook, or bookmark it.
Reviewing an app is super simple and quick “ just tap the Review It button in any of the listing or details views throughout the app, tap the heart or broken heart icons to like the app or not, hit Save and you ‘re done. You do not have to add a comment, but it ‘s obviously more helpful to try to do so most of the time. This will hardly slow you down at all, as you need to keep within the characters limit.
When viewing the app reviews timeline, you can choose from three filter tabs at the top of the screen “ to see reviews from everyone, just people you are following, or just your own reviews.
There ‘s a search bar to use to find any apps you haven ‘t spotted via any of the standard view screens.
It ‘s easy to follow someone by just clicking on the bar containing their name in review detail pages. You can use the Add People section of the app to add folks to follow via Facebook or search, or from the App Celebrities list. You can also invite friends to join Chomp via email or Facebook.
If any of you would like to add me / follow me on Chomp, my username is ‘patrickj ‘ “ and I ‘m currently in the App Celebrities list as well.
Chomp also offers you recommendations, based on the reviews you have done within the app.
What Does It Do Well?
The app ‘s interface is simple, well designed, and very easy to work with. In particular, adding reviews is so easy and fast that I feel sure it should serve as a continual incentive for people to contribute more.
It ‘s an app that just feels fun to use. It ‘s one of those apps I thoroughly enjoy using, so I ‘m far more likely to contribute regular reviews.
I may well have just been lucky so far, but another thing I ‘ve liked when looking at the reviews is that I ‘ve seen far less profane and inane comments than I ‘m used to seeing in the App Store. Your mileage may vary of course “ but I am encouraged to hear from Chomp ‘s CEO that vetting tools for reviews are coming.
What ‘s Not So Good?
The Recommendations section of the app has been quite disappointing to me so far. Two examples of things that are not impressive in this area: I have had apps that I ‘ve already reviewed recommended to me, and also I am seeing a large number of recommendations for ‘sexy bikini babes ‘ and the million and one variants on that tired theme. Given that the recommendations are meant to be based on my reviews and I have not reviewed any apps of that kind, or even anything close, those are not solid suggestions. I hope this area will improve “ a lot “ in future versions.
One quick thought for improving the recommendations “ add filters. Let me tell it that I do not want any ‘sexy anything ‘ apps, for instance.
In the Add People section, I ‘d like to see Twitter added into the mix “ so you can find people to follow from amongst your Twitter friends as well.
The Live App Reviews screen refresh when first launched can be quite slow at times. This definitely needs improvement, and according to Ben it is on the way:
That will be a lot faster in an update that comes out next week. Speed is something that we are really focused on here.
On the Recommendations screen, I would love to see an option to ‘dismiss all ‘ of a set of suggested apps. It can sometimes become tedious to have to tap individually to dismiss them.
Overall
Despite my few wish list items above for improvements, I ‘m very impressed with Chomp. I like the approach of this app a lot. As painful as it is to admit, as someone who runs an iPhone reviews site, the bite-sized, super short reviews are very well suited for iPhone app discovery.
If you want a fun, social way to discover new apps for the iPhone I definitely recommend giving Chomp a look.
You can find Chomp in the iPhone App Store now, and it ‘s a free app.
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TAGS: Chomp, iPhone app discovery apps, iphone apps
