During the first exciting, yet intimidating, week of freshman year, you’re meeting so many people that you often don’t remember names or where you met someone, let alone have their contact info.
Enter the new app, Knock Knock, created by Humin co-founders Ankur Jain and David Wyler. You now have a record of where you met these people and how to get ahold of them.
When two or more people have the app, it is activated when one person knocks on their phone twice. This alerts anyone else nearby with the app and gives them the opportunity to gain your info. By reciprocating this action and knocking twice on the glass screen of their own phone, a record is created of where you met this person, when you met and their photo. Although convenient, is it really the most personable approach?
Sir Richard Branson, will.i.am and Sophia Bush all invested in the app that makes exchanging contact info less awkward. The trio star in the app’s kickoff video released last week.
“I knocked. You knocked. We’re connected.” Between Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, it has become unrealistic to get someone’s username on all of these platforms at one time. After connecting with the app, you are then able to choose what you would like to share with them. This might include any combination of your social media profiles, your phone number or email, not to mention choices like Pinterest, Vine, Soundcloud and Tumblr.
The technology to exchange your contact info with a person next to you has existed before — Bump, which made it possible for two people to physically bump their phones together to exchange contact info, was one of the most downloaded mobile apps before going defunct. Major tech players like Samsung and Apple have S Beam and AirDrop, both of which allow for the transfer of files to compatible devices.
What makes Knock Knock so exciting is that you don’t have to bump your phones, put them back-to-back, or even simultaneously open the application. Simply enter a room and access the app; everyone in the room can then connect with you, or the rest of the group simply by knocking twice on their glass screen. Your phone could be in your pocket and locked, but by using Bluetooth or Apple’s Beacon technology, you could still connect.
Imagine walking into a class and wanting to make a study group. You could exchange phone numbers with as many people as possible during lecture, or you could all knock twice and use the app’s native group chat to get ahold of one another. Or perhaps you just met a group of your new floor mates, neighbors or club members and you would like to share your social media profiles with everyone, but your phone number with a select few? Knock twice and choose who can see what information and they will never know the difference.
Excited as I am to be able to use this app when it arrives on ASU’s campus, I do not think it should be used as a way to meet people. It is far more valuable as a tool to connect with people whom you have already met in real life.
If you are looking to get someone’s phone number to ask them out or their Twitter handle to look up a tweet, asking them directly would be easier than going through the app. If you don’t want someone to have any of your contact info, it is easier to politely decline his or her request than to go through Knock Knock. The greatest value in Knock Knock is in situations where there are multiple people who you’ve met and would like to connect with, like meeting a group of people in a club on campus.
These situations and all the awkward exchanges that happen in college, explain why Ankur Jain, CEO of Humin, is launching the app on college campuses first. While anyone can download the app, only a select few schools can begin using it. Among those are Harvard, Stanford, UPenn, Cornell, Berkeley and USC, while ASU is currently 32 on the wait list.
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Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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