Bumps! is an abandoned iOS and Android mobile app that allows smartphone users to transfer contact information, photos, and files between devices. In 2011, it was # 8 on Apple's list of the most popular free iPhone apps of all time, and by February 2013 it had been downloaded 125 million times. The developer, Bump Technologies, shut down the service and stopped apps on January 31, 2014, after being acquired by Google for Google Photos and Android Camera.
Video Bump (application)
Function
Bump sends contact information, photos, and files to other devices via the internet. Before enabling transfers, each user confirms what he wants to send to other users. To initiate a transfer, two people physically integrate their phone. The screen appears on the second user's smartphone screen, allowing them to confirm what they want to send to each other. When two users hit their phone, the software on the phone sends various sensor data to the algorithm running on the Bump server, which includes the location of the phone, the accelerometer readings, the IP address, and other sensor readings. The algorithm finds out which two phones are feeling the same physical clash and then transfer the information between the two phones. Bump makes transfers through software, in contrast to devices with Near Field Communication (NFC) chips, which transfer data through software and hardware.
With the release of Bump 3.0 for iOS in February 2012, the company took an unusual step to simplify the app to focus on its most frequently used features: contact and photo sharing. Bump 3.0 for Android retains deleted features from iOS versions but moves them behind a swipable layer.
In May 2012, Bump updates allow users to transfer photos from their phone to their computer through a web service. To initiate a transfer, users open the Bump website on their computer and crash into the smartphone on the computer keyboard spacebar. As of December 2012, Bump updates for iOS and Android have added the ability to share video, audio, and any files. Users swipe to access those features.
In February 2013, updates for the iOS and Android Bump app allow users to transfer photos, videos, contacts and other files from computer to smartphone and vice versa via web services. To initiate a transfer, users open the Bump website on their computer and crash into the smartphone on the computer keyboard spacebar.
Bumps are listed among the '' '' s "/s" "50 Best Android Applications for 2013". Maps Bump (application)
History
Ideas underlying sync movements such as bumping two devices to transfer content or pairing them were first conceived by Ken Hinkley of Microsoft Research in 2003. These ideas were presented at the user interface and technology conferences that same year. This paper proposes the use of accelerometers and the motion of crashing two devices to enable communication, sharing of screens and transferring content between them. Similar to this original concept, the idea for a Bump application was conceived by David Lieb, a former Texas Instruments employee, when he attended the University of Chicago Booth School of Business for his MBA. While through the orientation and business school meeting process, he becomes frustrated by constantly entering contact information into his iPhone and feels that the process can be improved. His fellow employees of Texas Instruments, Andy Huibers and Jake Mintz, Lieb's classmate at the University of Chicago MBA program, joined Lieb to form Bump Technologies.
Bump Technologies was launched in 2008 and is located in Mountain View, California. Initial funding for the project is provided by Y Combinator startup incubator, Sequoia Capital, and other angel investors. It got attention on CTIA's international wireless conference, due to its accessibility and novelty factor. In October 2009, Bump received $ 3.4m in Serie A funding followed in January 2011 with a $ 16m series B funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Silicon Valley's capitalist business capital, Marc Andreessen, sits on the board of the company.
The Bump app debuted at the Apple iOS App Store in March 2009 and was "one of the apps that helped determine the iPhone" (Harry McCracken, Technologizer). It soon became the billionth download on the Apple App Store. The Android version was launched in November 2009. At the time Bump 3.0 for iOS was released in February 2012, the app has been installed 77 million times, with users sharing more than 2 million photos every day. As of February 2013, there are 125 million Bump app downloads.
Other apps created by Bump Technologies
Bump Technologies worked with PayPal in March 2010 to create PayPal iPhone apps. The app, which allows two users to automatically enable Internet transfers of money between their accounts, finds widespread adoption. A similar version was released for Android in August 2010.
Bump's ability in the PayPal app was removed in March 2012. At that time, Bump Technologies released Bump Pay, an iOS app that allows users to transfer money via PayPal by bumping two smartphones simultaneously. This tool was originally created for the Bump team to use when breaking restaurant bills. Payment features are not added to the Bump app because companies "want to make it as simple as possible so people understand how it works," Lieb told ABC News. Bump Pay is the first application of the company's Bump Labs initiative. The purpose of Bump Labs is to test new app ideas that may not fit the main Bump app.
ING Direct added a feature to its iPhone app in 2011 that allows users to transfer money to one another using Bump technology. The feature was then added to its Android app, now called Capital One 360.
In July 2012, Bump Technologies released Flock, an iPhone photo-sharing app. The Android version was released in December 2012. Using embedded geolocation data in user's Facebook photos and connections, Flock finds user-captured images on the go with friends and family and puts everyone's photos from the event into a single shared album. Users receive push notifications after the event, asking if they want to share their photos with friends who were there at the time. The app will also scan previous photos on iPhone camera rollers and uncover unshared photos. If location services are enabled when photos are taken, Flock allows users to create photo albums from the past with friends who were there with them.
Vision for the mobile future
Bump Technologies CEO David Lieb says the technology is expanding to the point where users do not have to make their phones transfer information to others; it will just happen. Lieb said:
"Where I see the whole world moving about in the next year or two is from the 'Age of Intent,' where we've been for the last 40 years, to 'Age of Inference' or 'Age of Context.' "
The next generation of mobile apps, Lieb believes, will "solve the problem in a way that makes the user, the customer, not even think about it."
"Mobile will allow all these apps to change, and instead I tell the app what I want to do, the app will suggest to me, 'Hey, you might want to go to your meeting at the end of the strip because there's a lot of traffic.' "
Lieb uses Flock as an example of a mobile app that will do what the user wants in the background, with little or no effort on their part.
Acquisition by Google
On September 16, 2013, Bump Technologies announced that it was acquired by Google. As of December 31, 2013, they delivered the news that Bump and Flock would be stopped so the team could focus on new projects on Google. The app has been removed from the App Store and Google Play on January 31, 2014. The company then removes all user data and turns off their servers, so that existing app install rendering can not operate.
Awards
Bump Technologies received the Emerging Technology Award in 2010 from the San Jose/Silicon Valley Business Journal for the "mobile" category. Bump was named Best Overall Consumer App on the list of 50 TiE50 Startups for 2011. Lieb and Mintz were named Youngest Young Tech Entrepreneurs of Bloomberg Businessweek in 2011, and Mintz made Forbes ' 2011 30 Under 30. In 2012, Bump Technologies was named Fast 50 Most Innovative Companies.
See also
- Android Beam
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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