• Foregoing The Bump, Hashable Adds NFC Contact Swaps On Android

    Erick Schonfeld

    Erick Schonfeld is a technology journalist and the executive producer of DEMO. He is also a partner at bMuse, a product incubator in New York City. Schonfeld is the former Editor in Chief of TechCrunch. At TechCrunch, he oversaw the editorial content of the site, helped to program the Disrupt conferences and CrunchUps, produced TCTV shows, and wrote daily... → Learn More

    Monday, May 9th, 2011

    When people talk about near-field communications (NFC) chips in phones, they usually bring up mobile payments. But NFC chips, which are already in some Android phones, can be used by other apps besides payments (which won’t take off as quickly as people expect anyway).

    At Google I/O this week, NFC apps will be highlighted. Foursquare will allow Android users to check in by swiping their phones near posters with NFC chips. Also just in time for I/O, Hashable’s Android app now supports NFC features as well. Android users can swap contact info via NFC, and also check into the same activity with someone, like #dinner or #drinks.

    Hashable is a lightweight way to track the people you meet and exchange contact info. It’s completely replaced business cards for me. But on my iPhone, I still have to enter the person’s email or Twitter handle. With the Android app, if you meet someone else with an NFC-powered phone, you can just hold the phones next to each other and contact info will be exchanged via the app. It’s like Bump, without the fist-bump.

    If the other person is a new contact, Hashable will add that person as one. If it is an existing contact, it will trigger the check-in feature, which on Hashable allows you to check into people instead of to places. It’s a way of noting that you are doing an activity with someone to remember later or broadcast it out to your network. The Android app also now includes a QR-code reader incase someone hands you a card with one of those. Scan it, and throw it away.

    Company: Hashable
    Website: hashable.com
    Launch Date: 2010
    Funding: $4M

    Hashable is the best way to save and remember where and when you meet people. You can send virtual business cards to kick off relationships - quickly and paper-free. With Hashable’s iPhone or Android app, you can combine all of your relationships to create a unified address book. Plus, make private notes about your contacts and set follow-up reminders to keep your relationships current. As you use the app, you will be able to view a scrollable history of...

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    Product: Android
    Website: code.google.com
    Company Google

    Android is a software platform for mobile devices based on the Linux operating system and developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to write managed code in Java that utilizes Google-developed software libraries, but does not support programs developed in native code. The unveiling of the Android platform on 5 November 2007 was announced with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 34 hardware, software and telecom companies devoted to advancing open standards...

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