Bump Blog

 

BumpFour available on App Store

We're gearing up for the public release of the Bump API for iPhone, and we are excited to start seeing apps on the App Store using Bump in lots of interesting ways.  To demonstrate how the Bump API works, we built a simple game that uses Bump to connect two devices to play head-to-head.

You can download BumpFour here.

BumpFour also shows off the app sharing capability of the Bump API.  If you bump the BumpFour app with the Bump app, the person with the Bump app will be taken directly to the install page of BumpFour.

       

Posted January 12, 2010 by email 
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An Open Letter to App Developers: Bump Technologies Launches a Bump API

12/22/2009
An Open Letter to App Developers: Bump Technologies Launches a Bump API

Developers,

We've been amazed at how quickly our standalone app has taken off (nearly 7 million downloads since April).  And we've been overwhelmed by the number of developers who have asked for a way that they could use Bump in their own apps.  So, we've done exactly that: opened up the core Bump matching technology in the form of an SDK and API for use in other apps.  With the new Bump API, iPhone developers will be able to integrate our matching technology with just about 10 lines of code.

Mobile phones allow us to interact with others in many very powerful ways these days, but when it comes to interacting with someone *standing right next to you*, there is a big gap.  We hope that opening up the Bump API will help make mobile devices more useful by making it easier to connect to and share with those around you.

So, what can you do with the Bump API?  Just about anything.  The Bump API uses our Bump matching technology to identify another mobile phone and then creates a messaging channel between the two handsets.  Your users will be able to establish connections, exchange data, authenticate interactions...all with the same speed and simplicity that millions of people enjoy with the Bump app today.

Some details:
  • The Bump API is currently in Private Beta: you can request inclusion in the Beta at http://bu.mp/api.html
  • We'll accept ~20 developers with the best app ideas for the Beta program, the top 10 apps using the Bump API will be featured on our website and media communications, and the top 3 will win cash prizes of $500, $1000, and $2500.  We also have a few "Requests for Apps" in some areas we'd like to see Bump used: http://blog.bu.mp/requests-for-apps
  • After a short period, the API will come out of Beta and be freely available on our website.  We expect to support live apps on the App Store sometime in January.
  • Our intention is to provide the API for free to the majority of developers, with the free license having reasonable restrictions on usage rates, monetization, etc.

We created Bump because we were frustrated that it was so hard to interact with others in-person using our mobile phones.  We hope you find the Bump API a useful tool in your apps.

Happy Bumping,
-dave and the Bump Team

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David Lieb  |  Co-founder and CEO
Bump Technologies, Inc.
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Posted December 22, 2009 by email 
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Requests for Apps

These are some ideas that the Bump Team would love to see someone build using Bump.  Let us know if one of these areas is your cup of tea.

Dating: Dating sites today let people browse for matches online and then set up meetings in the real world.  That's great, but wouldn't it been cool if you could know right when you meet someone new whether you are compatible?  You bump, and your phone tells you "You and Jane are 83% compatible, you both listen to Radiohead, you grew up 10 miles from each other, and you both enjoy rockclimbing.  Go talk".

Social Games: Gaming is becoming more social, we all see that.  But what new kinds of games can be created with an easy way to identify and connect two phones right next to each other?  How about Bump Kevin Bacon -- how many degrees are you from Kevin Bacon and can you bump your way to a 2nd degree connection?  Or how about a "break-the-ice" game where each person enters a few interesting facts about themselves and then you have to go around talking to and bumping people to fill out your game board with people's interesting facts?

Group / Party Games: Multi-player games are great, but they are a real pain to set up with a large number of players.  What about a poker app where you can actually play with your buddies while sitting around a table, but you don't have to deal with chips and shuffling cards?  You could bump to join the table.  What other kinds of games could you build?

Cloud file sharing: Lots of us keep all our important documents in the cloud.  We like to share those files with people.  But today the way it typically works is, "oh yeah, remind me to send you that document when I get back to my desk".  With Bump, you can share files in the cloud immediately, while in the moment.

Virtual Goods: Sharing virtual goods or giving virtual gifts is popular these days.  What if you could give a virtual gift in a non-virtual way, by physically giving the item to a friend with a bump?

Music discovery: One of the most common ways of discovering music is through recommendations from friends.  Wouldn't it be great if there was an app that could look at two people's music libraries and recommend -- based on their own music and listening data -- which of their friend's favorite bands they should check out?  Bonus points for a mashup with last.fm.

Posted December 22, 2009 by  
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UPDATE on Bump 1.21 crashes

We've determined two root causes of the rare crashes we've been seeing on the new version of Bump.  To avoid the crashes, please ensure that:

1) All of the contacts in your address book have at least a first name, last name, or company name.  (For example, if you have a contact that only has a phone number or only has an email address, Bump might crash).  Contacts with only phone numbers will appear at the bottom of the contacts list; contacts with only email addresses will appear alphabetically.  Please add a name to these contacts.

2) You have at least 1 contact in your address book.  If you have no contacts in your address book, Bump might crash.

Thanks to all of our amazing users who helped us track down this rare problem!

-Bump

Posted December 6, 2009 by email 
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Send us your crash reports!

We are finding that our latest Bump release, version 1.21 on iTunes, is crashing on a very small fraction of Apple devices.  If this is happening on your device, it would help us immensely if you could send us the crash report generated on your device.  Here are the instructions:

1) Sync your device with iTunes
2) Send us all files that begin with "BUMP" and end with ".crash" in this folder on your computer:

  • Mac OS X: ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/<DEVICE_NAME>

  • Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<USERNAME>\Application Data\Apple Computer\Logs\CrashReporter\MobileDevice\<DEVICE_NAME>

  • Windows Vista: C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\Logs\CrashReporter\MobileDevice\<DEVICE_NAME>

Thanks everyone!  If you live in the Bay Area and are experiencing this crash, please let us know.  It would be extremely helpful to be able to plug your device into our debugger.

Thanks,
-David

Details on Crash Reports:

Acquiring Crash Reports

When an application crashes on the iPhone or iPod touch, a "crash report" is stored on the device. Crash reports describe the conditions under which the application terminated, in most cases including a complete stack trace for each executing thread, and are typically very useful for debugging issues in the application.

When the user synchronizes their device using iTunes, crash reports are copied to a directory on the user's computer. If the application was distributed via the App Store and the user has chosen to submit crash logs to Apple, the crash log will be uploaded and the developer can download it via iTunes Connect. For applications that have been distributed using Ad Hoc or Enterprise methods, getting crash reports requires user cooperation. Specifically, the user will need to retrieve the crash report from the directory where it was copied by iTunes. Depending on the platform, the directory is:

  • Mac OS X: ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/<DEVICE_NAME>

  • Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<USERNAME>\Application Data\Apple Computer\Logs\CrashReporter\MobileDevice\<DEVICE_NAME>

  • Windows Vista: C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\Logs\CrashReporter\MobileDevice\<DEVICE_NAME>

<USERNAME> is the user's login name for the computer. <DEVICE_NAME> is the name of the iPod touch or iPhone, for example, "John's iPhone".

You are only interested in .crash files. The crash report's file name begins with the application name and contains date/time information. In addition, <DEVICE_NAME> will appear at the end of the file name, before the extension.

Thanks!  This will help us immensely.

-David

 

Posted December 6, 2009 by email 
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Advent App Calendar

Happy Bump Day, everyone. Our friends over at MagicSolver have made a cool Advent App to publicize their top 25 favorite apps. Today's gift is Bump!

Posted December 4, 2009 by email 
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New Bump Releases

Hello Bumpers!

We've decided to move our blog over to Posterous (a fellow Y Combinator company), so look for more frequent posts in the future.

Last week we finally released two things we've been working on for a while: Bump version 1.2 for iPhone and our first release on Android.  The iPhone update adds some new features that have been requested by users (Facebook integration, Bump History) and a new feature that we thought might be interesting (Friend Compare).

The new Bump History tab shows you all your bumps, and shows you who, what, where, and when you bumped.  "Who was that guy I met up in the city last weekend?"  Bump will tell you.  "Where is that photo that Jake bumped to me on our ski trip?"  Bump has it.  You can search by name, date, and even on a map.  We hope this will help record the context of your interactions with others as you use Bump.

The Facebook integration allows you to use Bump to connect with people on Facebook.  If you bump with someone with whom you aren't Facebook friends (and you are both logged into Facebook in Bump), Bump will send you both a private notification with a link to the other person's profile so you can easily find them and add them as a friend.  Bump also gives you the option to update your Facebook status to let your friends know who you are bumping with.

The new Friend Compare feature helps out when you are meeting someone new and playing the name game.  "Oh, you went to Stanford, do you know so-and-so?"  Well, Bump will now tell you all of your mutual friends (across both your phone address book and Facebook) with just a single bump.

The Android release finally takes Bump cross-platform.  You can now bump between two Android devices and also between Android and iPhone.  In the future, we'll continue to support additional phone platforms, and Bump will work between any and all of them.

Cheers!
-The Bump Team

Posted November 16, 2009 by email 
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