Bump (YC S09) Goes Cross-Platform With New Android App; Upgrades iPhone Version | Hacker News Reader

Bump (YC S09) Goes Cross-Platform With New Android App; Upgrades iPhone Version

techcrunch.com

22 pointscomatose_kid8 comments

Android seems like a more natural home for Bump. At a conference, I can keep Bump running in the background at all times and "bump" at the drop of a hat.

With the iPhone, either I keep Bump open all the time or I have to spend the time to fire it up. It's enough to make the experience noticeably less convenient.

I've been looking for a clear-cut case where multitasking provides a better experience. This may be it.

I tried this on my Android phone but the app must be active before you bump. It doesn't work even though the app is loaded in the background.

Well, darn. That's a bummer. Serves me right for assuming, rather than testing.

However, this seems more like an implementation-specific thing than a limitation of the platform. Bump can fix this on Android, they can't on the iPhone.

Part of the reason we did not enable bumping in the background is we have received lots of feedback that people like the security aspect of having to open the app for an exchange to occur (picture girls at bars having guys hitting their phones into purses and pockets ;).

The time required to bump on Android is (surprisingly) much less than on iPhone. Google doesn't seem to put the radio in as deep of a low power idle, so practically as soon as you open (or re-open) the app you can bump. iPhone takes a few seconds for the radio to warm up...

I'd really love to be given the chance to port this to BlackBerry devices. I contacted Bump through email, but they showed almost no interest at all for the time being. They acknowledge the fact that the Storm/Storm2 both have accelerometers, but aren't willing to port until more devices ship with accelerometers built in.

It's a shame really, because:

1. The Storm is a device that has sold quite a few units, and the Storm2 has had decent sales since launch, as well.

2. Once you write the app for one device, it's a joke to port it to other devices. In fact, if you take caution when developing it, you could probably just build and go, with no changes.

Hopefully they'll have a change of heart soon, because I think this is a serious opportunity to miss out on.

Pretty cool that you can bump iphone to an android and have it actually work (I tested it). I don't think there are many apps that cross-communicate interactively.

I know the big story here is cross platform support, but I also LOVE the idea of being able to see common friends as a way to break the ice.

Glad to hear that! We are super excited too (and curious to see whether or not anyone uses this feature). Hopefully by time shifting this event (looking up common friends when you meet someone instead of after) and using many people's best record of real social network (address book) we provide a valuable and useful service. :)

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