

Would you use it: A new address book? - rumberg

I've been thinking about a problem I had for quite a while now: Contact information that are out of date from people that I haven't talked to in a while or are missing altogether (like postal addresses) because I didn't add them.<p>Here is the core idea:<p>An app that works as a better address book but can automatically inform your friends or certain groups whenever you change your profile (job, address, phone number, website, important milestones etc.). The app will automatically push the update to their address books or send them a notification when they don't have the app installed. The same will happen, when they update their own information.<p>Would you use it?
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mooism2
I'd love it if Facebook did this. But Facebook don't allow you to sync your FB
friends' contact details onto your phone --- it's actually against their TOS
for you to automatically extract your friends' contact details from
facebook.com.

Would I use a standalone app that did this? Chicken and egg problem: you've
got to make your app useful to me even if none of my friends use it.

If a particular friend also uses your app, can you mark their contact details
as being guaranteed-up-to-date?

If a particular friend _doesn't_ use your app, can you remember when I entered
their details and keep track of how stale they are? If I text them and the
text doesn't get through, can you highlight their number as possibly not
working any more?

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rumberg
Thanks, mooism2. Good points. Would you use a new app that makes the "search
contact(s) → call/write/message" faster and more beautiful?

If a friend also uses your app, can you mark their contact details as being
guaranteed-up-to-date? → That is the idea that I want to build the app around.

If a particular friend doesn't use your app, can you remember when I entered
their details and keep track of how stale they are? → Good point. One solution
would be to regularly send them an email (maybe once every three months) with
the request that to send you their updated information (via email).

If I text them and the text doesn't get through, can you highlight their
number as possibly not working any more? → That wouldn't be necessary after
they use the same network as well. Otherwise: Cool idea, I will add it to the
list.

~~~
mooism2
_One solution would be to regularly send them an email (maybe once every three
months) with the request that to send you their updated information (via
email)._

I wouldn't want the app to send this sort of communication in my name.

 _Would you use a new app that makes the "search contact(s) →
call/write/message" faster and more beautiful?_

The standard ios app is quick and pretty enough for me.

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tarr11
I can sync my contacts on my Android phone with LinkedIn, Facebook etc. So I
can see all this information already.

What else does your app do?

~~~
rumberg
A couple of things.

\- The idea is to release the app on all platforms. So whenever you lose your
phone, get a new one or work on different platforms you can just install the
app and all your contacts get updated automatically (including a web interface
if you need it).

\- I talked to many people about the But Facebook and LinkedIn does that
already thing. I asked them if they share private contact information like
your birthday, current address, or private phone numbers and most don't. This
is where the app comes in:

I developed the app with the idea in mind to be able to delete my Facebook
account without losing the contact information. The main benefit of the app
will be to have an always up to date contact information, because everything
else grows from here: organize a party, message a friend I didn't talk to in a
long time, or send a postcard as a surprise because you can be shure that your
friends added their address to their profile.

\- The app focuses on tight security, because nobody likes to make their
contact information public.

\- The vision is: Instead of having hundreds of half synced contacts (some
have only a website link or an old email address after I tried a facebook
sync), you can build a contact network that is based on quality information
and grows in quality over time with every new contact you add to the network.

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philiphodgen
Is this idea like Plaxo?

~~~
rumberg
Yes and no. The core idea is a lot like plaxo - keep your contact information
up to date. But everything else should be a lot simpler:

\- The address book doesn't try to use automated updates from Facebook and
Twitter. Instead it just shows what people add to their profile.

\- The app won't try to reinvent the address book. It is build on top of your
existing address list and wants to It will just be faster to get to actions
(call, message, search) and pair it with "self-updating" contact information.

