Amazon/iTMS links in Google Maps Placemark (Photo credit: earthhopper)
Geofencing
In the last week or so, I was contacted by a team leader about developing marketing tools and social media to support a new mobile app. The startup (we’re still working on the name and brand) focuses on Geofencing. Geofencing is a technology that uses the sensors on your phone (cellular, wi-fi, and GPS) to decide if you are in a certain specific area, and then do something with that information, often automatically. Some great apps exist that make use of GeoFencing. Two that come to mind are Smart Places Checkin for Android and Tasker for Android.
Existing solutions
Smart Places Checkin for Android allows me to set up geofencing zones and then automatically check in to those places on Facebook, along with stats. It’s beautiful, and I have several zones set up. However, it’s difficult in my opinion to set up those zones, and the UI could use some work. What’s more, it only does that one singular thing: share my location with Facebook. I want that functionality, but I want flexibility to do other things too.
Geofencing example (Photo credit: James Cridland)
Tasker for Android is a superb application that allows you to do everything you could imagine with the sensors on your phone, and as a result, you can set actions to be performed with your phone based on your location. Tasker is brilliant, but especially difficult to use for the uninitiated. The UI, in particular, could use an overhaul, or a “light” mode.
Our idea
What we are proposing started as simply a geofencing coupon app. It was like super-local groupons that pop up when you are near a deal. But after seeing what the app is capable of, we are looking to be able to do that and a lot more.
If we incorporate gamification features, a social layer that allows tie in to Facebook, Twitter or G+, sharing IFTTT style recipes between users, and other features related to Geofencing, we could really have something. People can choose to create scenarios like those below and share them for customization by others. Consider the following examples:
- Use the app to create geozone based easter eggs, and create a reward (for businesses, it might be a discount, for others it might be a badge) for collecting all the ‘eggs’.
- Use the app to create awareness of location between you and your significant other or children so that you always know where each other are.
- Use the app to design a tour of a campus, lab, city, or route, with messaging related to placemarks.
- Use the app to create one-off or repeating reminders to yourself or others that while you are near the Post Office, drop off the mail; While near the grocery store, pick up eggs.
- Use the app to track your movement along your path for later review.
- Use the app to give yourself points or a badge when you visit a friend’s house or some other task that you want to encourage yourself to do more often, and share the recipe with your friends to encourage them to do the same. Automatically share your points or visit with Facebook.
I could list another 10 examples, but I imagine that you have your own examples that you are thinking about. When this was just a geofencing coupon app, I have to admit, I was not as excited. But with the potential flexibility and extensibility of this, I could not be more so. Stay tuned for more on this as it develops!
Related articles
Creating smarter apps with geofencing
Frencer: A Free Android Geofencing App
Self-Taught Developer David Richard Harnesses the Power of Geofencing to Create a New Type of Local Network with His New Mobile App JaVu
This content is published under the Attribution 3.0 Unported license.