Bump Brings Digital Contact Exchange to the Masses

vía Mashable! de Jennifer Van Grove el 28/12/09

This post is part of Mashable's Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.

Name: Bump

Quick Pitch: Bump makes connecting as simple as bumping two phones together.

Genius Idea: Applications supporting the electronic exchange of contact information, of which there are many, promise a much more convenient and environmentally-friendly experience than the standard business card swap alternative. Digital information sharing, however, is a great-in-theory concept that has yet to become standard-in-practice.

Thanks to a little bump from Apple and the novelty of the app itself, Bump — an iPhone and Android app for instant contact and photo exchange with a bump (literally) — could be the app that actually follows through on that promise and converts us all from paper to digital digits.

The just-bump-it app lets you swap photos and contact details, supports Facebook integration, stores your bump exchange history, and even lets you bump phones with friends to compare mutual contacts.

The application has become pretty darn popular by mobile standards, with 7 million downloads across iPhone and Android devices. Plus, Bump just recently launched their iPhone API, which means iPhone application developers can integrate Bump functionality into their own apps.

The API practically guarantees that Bump will continue to become even more prevalent and prove to be a practical and viable alternative for information exchange at events (even those outside the Valley).

Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

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Tags: Android App, bump, iphone, iphone app, Mobile 2.0, spark-of-genius