dropdrop
Leave messages where you travel, for others to discover.
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dropdrop - Leave messages where you travel for others to discover

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A drop is a message or a photo that you leave at your current location. Other people can see drops you leave behind, and you can discover drops near you. Everything on dropdrop is centered around location, so drops are relevant and timely. Discover and share drops with those around you.

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My grandparents hid pennies around places they traveled with photo clues to hint at its whereabouts. I guess this is the millennial version of that.
Maker
Hi guys! Founder of dropdrop here. I'm excited to hear everyone's feedback on our messaging app. We really wanted to connect online communication with the real world by associating messages and photos to a real place and time. We have an extensive road map laid out for upcoming features, including video and the ability to pick up and move drops. It's a very open platform, so the implications for use are really up to the individual. We've seen people leave surprise messages for their friends at a place they know they frequent. We've seen tips for locals dropped at different establishments. And we're working out rules for an upcoming scavenger hunt using drops. For the technically inclined, you can think of drops as Bluetooth beacons without the hardware. You determine the duration and radius of each drop you create. We've seen accuracy up to 10 meters. I'm looking forward to hearing from you all! Ask me anything!
Love the idea. Its so interactive with reality
Maker
thanks! Have fun with it! We've got some cool features on the horizon.
Cool, reminds me of that uk startup that let you attach msgs to physical items on the streets that had a serial number of sme sorts
Hunter
Do you remember the name of the startup?
Maker
Yes, but that's specific for scavenger hunts. dropdrop is much more than a scavenger hunt. Although it could be used the same way as geocaching, it's not intended to solely be used for finding nearby waypoints.
Maker
That Hello Lamp Post project is pretty cool. I can see how this reminds you of it. That whole sense of discovery and surprise is really what we're after.
facebook only as signup was a showstopper for me. also: there is obvious potential for abuse, wondering what flagging mechanisms are in there? love the idea - curious if I can browse drops without being at or near a location - and if you will remove the facebook requirement
Maker
Thanks so much for the feedback about the Facebook login. That was a decision we made early on so that we could bring this app to market quickly. If we find that dropdrop appears to have a reasonable market fit, we will be adding email or possibly phone as an option. Which signup option do you prefer? For flagging, we have the ability to block users, and to report drops and their users. We're very aware of the potential for abuse, and made sure to have the tools in place to prevent that. Currently, you have to physicially be in range of drops to view them in the app. However, we have a feature on our road map to allow users to virtually "travel" to different places and view/leave drops there.
I fully support the idea of virtually traveling to view drops, but I pause on the idea of leaving virtual drops. There is something in knowing a person was physically present at the drop location. Also, with virtual drops what's to stop an intern at Dicks Sports from taking an afternoon to spam the maps?
Maker
very good point, and we may nix that idea if we feel it could be abused. We do have stamps (in-app currency) which might limit abuse or at least discourage it if we require stamps for that feature.
Excellent. I see some companies are already using the platform in an innovative, non-spammy way ;)
Maker
That is so awesome to see!
This is a cool idea, but I am curious how will you crack the install challenge? Especially if this is an app that only works in very special cases, and far in-between?
Maker
Great question! As with any platform that relies on user-generated content, you need critical mass for it to be useful. We've tried to make the on-boarding process as easy as possible. We're using Facebook to tap into users' existing social network. Although there are very special cases, there are a lot of different very special cases, so there is the potential to have content generated for a wide variety of reasons.
Interesting idea! Reminds me of of when i was younger i would hide notes around payphones in airports for my friend to find the next time they were in that airport..
Maker
that is exactly the type of fun and surprising experience we are hoping for!
So it's like Yik Yak with presented location and a different market demographic?
Maker
Yik Yak is great, but it basically splits up the world into segments. We wanted people to be in control of who can see their messages. When you create a drop, it's centered on your exact location, you choose its radius, its duration, and if you want to limit which of your friends can see it. Instead of dumping a pre-set region of people into an arbitrary boundary, the messages are bounded by the user creating it.
Good answer.
Interesting idea. The peculiar use case of this product could be for long Trails / Thru Hikes / adventure parks where you would probably need help. (something I've seen happening at the PCT). Just trying to understand how will it apply for known places / cities.
Maker
I can definitely see this used on trails and outdoor exploration. Within cities, it could be very personal, with private messages left at frequented locations, or more broad, leaving graffiti around a city. We really aren't promoting any single use case over another. We can't wait to see how you use this for hiking!
This is a cool idea, and for some reason I was thinking about Glympse. We use Glympse when moving in small groups within city limits and the only reason I installed it was because the immediate gain of knowing where others I am going to meet is right now. I think you guys need to think similar here. There is no way lots of people would install this just to read local messages from anyone, it has to be immediate gain for the person who would need to install the app like agencies organizing bachelor parties could use it for gamification, local shops could hide giveaways/coupons, tourist guides and so on. I see you mention some of this and I think the local value is stronger than "Leave messages where you travel, for others to discover".
Maker
Very good argument, and using the word "travel" in our tag line may lead people to assume that's its only intended use. In the short time we spent developing this platform, it has already evolved over and over again. I'm so glad you mentioned coupons, because our long term vision is to tap into the retail space, but for it to be valuable for retailers, we would already need the consumer presence. So we're focusing on the fun, friend-oriented, travel part for now, and if we gain critical mass, we will start incorporating some of these broader reaching applications.
Hey I really like your app! Very simple and intuitive! Where is the most used currently?
Maker
Thanks so much! We put a lot of thought into how to make everything as intuitive as possible. Currently, we're seeing the most activity in the United States, specifically in NJ, NY, CA, and IL. We're also seeing lots of activity in China, France, and the UK.
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