As of 8 a.m. this morning, there’s a new app out there to add to your never-ending list of apps on your phone aka more reasons to delete those photos from two years ago. Sup, is a social discovery app that’s geared toward millennials who want to know where their friends are at all times. For example, if you’re out having drinks at a bar alone, but want to see if any of your friends are nearby to join you, there’s an app for that, and that app is Sup.
Where Sup differs from similar apps is that it doesn’t display an exact location on a map, but a radar of your general location. In other words, if you’re sleeping with your coworker and you don’t want anyone to know, and your friends go searching for you while you’re getting it on with your coworker, they won’t be able to tell that you’re tucked away in bed at a specific address. To your friends' eyes, you could be anywhere in the vicinity, like maybe even at the Whole Foods a couple blocks away innocently grocery shopping.
With Sup, you don’t have to text your friends, because you text them enough already, to see where they are. Instead, you can log onto Sup and see where they are within a perimeter that ranges from 20 to 2000 yards.
As founder Rich Pleeth explains in a press release:
“When people come together, magic happens and with Sup, you can use an app whilst not being tracked.” What this translates to is you can have your privacy and magic all at once. It’s the best of both worlds.
But as is the case with pretty much any app at this point, Sup, although different in its own ways, isn’t the only social discovery app out there that can locate your buddies. Here are six other social discovery apps that will keep you connected to your friends 24/7, because that’s what we do nowadays.
1. Find My Friends
Find My Friends, unlike Sup, gives its members exact locations of their friends. In fact, a couple of my friends wanted me to join, but I don’t need anyone knowing that I never leave my apartment. While it does provide easy access to finding your friends, a particular line in its description sort of throws me off: “Keep track of the family during a day on the ski slopes.” Because I want to be jealous of my sister skiing in Breckenridge while I haven’t left my apartment in a week? (TV being the obvious enabler in this situation.)
Find My Friends also, apparently, helped a guy find out his wife was cheating because its location process is really that exact. This app is definitely a must for anyone who, not only wants to track their friends' personal lives, but discover that their partner is up to no good.
2. Banjo
The app Banjo is all about speed, at least according to its site: “Speed of discovery and speed to broadcast are essential in today’s ever-evolving world of media.” Banjo seems like the LinkedIn of the social discovery apps in that it provides its members access to events and breaking news, for media professionals mostly, as opposed to just the fact that your friend is around the corner eating a cupcake on a bench.
3. Highlight
Highlight is another social discovery app that, like Sup, doesn’t believe in tracking, as it clearly states on its site. Instead, it alerts its users of who’s nearby by, both professional and personal connections, and allows them to meet up if they want. Members not only get to see who’s nearby, but get a glimpse into who and what kind of person they are thanks to profiles attached to each user.
4. Life360
The app Life360 markets itself as the cure for those still mourning the demise of Google Latitude, a social discovery app that is no more. As is the case with most of the apps, your location is pinpointed on a map, although you can choose to share your location or not. It also alerts your friends and family when you arrive or leave some of your favorite locations... because I know my friends and family want to know exactly how much pizza I consume at the joint around the corner on a daily basis.
5. Hemisphere
Apparently when Google Latitude announced that it was on its way out, Life360 wasn’t the only one to step in and try to mollify the loss for it members. The app Hemisphere for Android users also provides a map, your location, your friends’ location (after they’ve been added and they accept), and all the other conveniences that comes with stalking, er, I mean keeping a safe watch on your friends and family.
6. Localmind
App Localmind seems to be the most useful, personally. What this app does is, if you’re in a new city or even your own city, it doesn’t just suggest places to go, people to meet, and things to do, but connects you with local experts that can guide you in the right direction of fun. Because it is so useful, especially for travelers, Airbnb acquired Localmind in 2012.
Images: Eugenio Marongiu/Fotolia; Giphy(6)
