Tasty Blog Snack

Jul 14

The loopt debacle

Posted at 9:46 am | 61 comments

With the launch of the app store this past week in conjunction with the new iPhone, a little application called loopt has been causing a bit of conflict with the community. Loopt is a location based social networking site that uses GPS to determine your exact location and share it with your friends.. and then spam your entire contact list via an SMS invite.

There’s a good chance that if you installed this application you’ve made the same mistake that most people made. While searching for friends who were on the service, apparently a text message was sent out to a large portion of my contact list, along with my phone number and my exact location (you know, since that’s the point of the application). Granted, you would think that if you have someone’s phone number, they’d have yours as well…

Hi, hey.. Over here!! People change their phone number for a reason!! With the ease of syncing contacts on the iPhone, it’s not always guaranteed that everyone in your contact list is a BFF (read: best friend forever). Also, there’s always people you just never want to text.. Like Steve Jobs, or an old boss, or maybe even an ex who would rather push you in front of a bus than get a text message from you?

(image from Merlin Mann’s getsatisfaction thread)

If there’s one thing that I hate more than anything, it’s sending out invites to a service. Especially one I’ve never tried and haven’t been actively using for more than 15 seconds.

Never once did I see a confirmation message that my friends would be getting an invite. The worst part about it is that my phone number was sent along with every invite as a text message to my friends. I just recently got a new phone number and I haven’t been as free with this as I have been in the past.

(I stole this screen shot from Aaron who has a great entry about some of his favorite iPhone apps. It’s definitely a good read!)

Now, the bad part is that I do actually like the service. Which, I guess isn’t that bad of a thing — it’s been awhile since I’ve actually been slightly enthused about new social networking site. It’s extremely simple to use and the iPhone UI is pretty intuitive (unless you’re trying to add friends.. I still don’t have that part completely figured out and I don’t think they do either). It’s also very easy to see where my friends are and what they’re up to at a glance.

You do need your friends phone number before you can add them which will cut down on the amount of people who can find you. This is definitely a plus, because I did plan on using this as a close friends only site.. unlike my Brightkite and groovr usage!

Oh, and a side note.. Dave Price from the Middle Show and Black 20 are the intro video for Loopt. As most of you know, they are my favorite content creators!

What are your thoughts on this service? This definitely raises a lot of privacy issues and awareness that we can’t be 100% sure of what these applications are going to do with our information.

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61 Replies to "The loopt debacle"

I like the service too, but they need to get their shit together.

Andrew Mager on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

I 100% agree…and I tend to think this is why I much prefer the Brightkite way of doing things. They’re so much more in tuned with a user’s privacy, thus they offer a ton of levels of privacy. Beyond that, everything is basically opt-in, rather than with Loopt where it just kind of does everything for you.

What’s worse is the friend invitations…I mean…that’s cool and all, but give us an opportunity to be more controlling over that…

I personally can’t wait for the iPhone native Brightkite app…it’ll kill Loopt

Matt Galligan on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

I have also had some issues with Loopt on the 3G. After opening the Loopt application..then closing out of it…

The text messaging sound no longer works. The phone will vibrate but no sound. I did troubleshooting yesterday with different apps and this was the only one that was causing it. I decided to call Apple support yesterday morning to see what was going on with it and they said it is Loopt causing this issue and they “might” have a fix later this week…try a software restore on the phone towards the end of the week…so well see…as of right now..I won’t be using Loopt until the bugs get worked out

John on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

I cant have all those apss :(!! waiting for the dev-team to release the jailbreak and unluck software!!!

I hate that the realese date for the iPhone was Jul 11 for almost every country but Chile!

Now. Whos fault is that?

About your post, I guess it would be weird if everyone could see your location, but its only for your friend…rigth? and you can allways turn it off when you are in one of your undercovered missions!!

Nicolas on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

@Matt: I agree.. I definitely almost shit a brick when I found out it sent out a text without me really even doing anything! Not good at all! I do really wish Brightkite would have had an app out for the launch.. that would have been awesome. Hopefully it won’t be too much longer.

@Andrew: Also agreed

ijustine on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

I love Loopt, but I think the invite screen was a little misleading. I read carefully and didn’t send out the SMS invites as you might have experienced. Instead I had it send invites to friends on my Address Book which it detected to be already Loopt members, so it’s a little more bacn than spam.

Kevin on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

I have not been able to really use the app with my friends, because it won’t let me add friends. At least I’m not able to figure that part out. My friend and I have been trying to add each other (sending each other invites) and have had no luck. If anyone who reads this can assist please let a girl know. Until then the Loopt icon is just for show.

Melly Mel on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

I think it is pretty fascinating that we’re starting to get into a realm of social networking where you want to have a lot tighter controls on who you’re friends with and how your information is shared. It is the opposite of MySpace in the regards of obtaining friends and online authority. These services are more about sharing more private data but amongst smaller circles.

Thanks too for your shoutout to my post… it is going to be really interesting how a lot of these services shake out after the next couple months.

Aaron on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

I seemed to have a text message on my phone from an “eJustine”

RV510 on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

Apparently, that app is only available in the US.

Long Nguyen on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

I love the idea of the app. However, way out here in Atlanta, I have 2 friends with an iPhone, and maybe 4 friends total with phone-web capability. They just don’t care about apps like that, which makes me wish I were in a more technology friendly city. What can ya do?

Ryan Hague on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

Ugh… I don’t even know if I spammed people or not! I finally gave in and installed the app, but does it automatically send out invites when you go to that screen? Or do you have to select people you want to join?

I guess I’m asking… did I spam you back?!

I hate stuff like this though. I think it’s really bad planning on the part of a social network to give yourself a negative connotation right out of the gate. Didn’t they learn anything from Quechup?.

veronica on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

I had lazik 8 years ago and it was the best thing I ever did. No glasses 24/7, only reading glasses.

Alex Nislick on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

yeah i got your number and here it is 867-5309

I wonder if anyone will get it…

Greg Wilker on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

I’ve decided to not install Loopt for that simple fact. Bright Kite is nice cause I can control where I send my location, same with Twitterific but I’m not sure I want my exact GPS coordinates sent out if I’m in a port-a-john or something like that… And none of my RL friends are that into new technology, I don’t think they even know what twitter is… FAIL…

But, I’ve twittered my phone number before, and weird people called me, which is kinda what I wanted… But with the new exchange integration, I’m not sure I want a loopt invite sent to my boss and the owner of the company I consult for, that would be epic fail…

I haven’t install twitterlator yet, I like Twitterific so far, and Remote is neat. Waiting on a BirghtKite app… and for GPS to be a bit more reliable, it seems to only pick up 1/2 the time… Oh well I’m happy with my 16GB black iphone treat!

Screen shots are definitely the coolest, I can’t wait to take picks of peoples home screens when they aren’t looking and then set it as their screen saver, muahahaha
@Greg Wilker I got it lol

kemics on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

They shouldn’t be allowed to send sms without permission.

Its just wrong

I’ll watch out for this once i get my iphone!

Matt Cheetham on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

@Greg Wilker haha I got it too… after repeating it to myself at different tempos for a couple minutes.

I definetly will NOT be trying out Loopt… for some reason it just doesn’t appeal to me as a useful app. I think it would be seriously creepy if someone came up to me and was like “OMG I SAW YOU ON LOOPT!” but then again I guess you can only add the friends who’s number you have.

jeremyjacks on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

I’m hoping for Brightkite, too. Loopt is mehhhh I dunno, I have to keep something like Facebook open because i don’t know people’s cell phone numbers by heart, and while it’s good to require it to add people, it takes me forever to add people.

Luckily, I didn’t spam anyone.

Eric Rice on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

I am very upset, loopt isnt avalible here in the U.K

lukeb3000 on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

I’ve been using it for a few days, and i do really like it. Except for the random invite spam, and sending my ex my exact location, which then prompted a huge “why didnt you tell me you moved” text conversation…kill me now…but i like it for the most part. It helped me figure out that one of my internet buddies happened to be about 30 feet from me. I’ll keep using it, but if brightkite gets it together, I’ll prob just end up using that.

Cait on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

For a while now I couldn’t figure out how to add friends. Quite frankly my gang of personal friends aren’t into this kind of non-sense. And as sold out for social networking as I am I don’t really like Loopt. I barely like Brightkite.

Verdict: I pass!

David on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

Disclaimer: I am one of the founders of Brightkite.

Thought I’d throw in my 2 cents. First of all, I’d like to say that loopt has done a pretty good job with their app, and you can tell that they’ve put a ton of work into it. Naturally, I think that ours will be better, but I’ll let you be the judge of that when we release it later this month

Concerning SMS spam: I was really surprised to see loopt violate quite a few of the MMA guidelines (http://www.mmaglobal.com/bestpractices.pdf) for SMS programs. The highlights:

1) Through the invite feature, the loopt app sends unsolicited messages to your contacts from their shortcode. According to the MMA guidelines, that’s a big no-no.

2) As some have pointed out, the loopt shortcode (56678) does not respond appropriately to HELP and STOP commands, as required by the MMA guidelines. Those commands are essential, and to be honest I am unsure how loopt got carrier approval without implementing them.

3) I couldn’t find information on loopt’s website detailing how to opt-out, another requirement in the MMA guidelines.

From what I understand, those “guidelines” are actually more than just guidelines, they’re requirements to get carrier approval. When we applied for our shortcode, we spent a lot of time making sure that we get these things right.

All that being said, I am sure that loopt will address those problems very soon. I know first-hand that it can be tough to get things 100% right at launch, especially in this new space, so let’s cut them some slack and give them a few weeks to fix things.

Martin May on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

Justine — there’s a warning screen when you’re first setting up the app that it’ll use SMS. It was shady enough that it tripped my spidey-senses and alerted me that I wanted to wait for reports just like this one.

The fact that they weren’t explicitly telling me what SMS was going to be used for seemed really shitty — sorry you had to be the one to jump on that grenade for us.

MacDork on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

Not a good thing to do. The most valuable solution would be to email them and tell them what you don’t like. The fastest will be to only add your close friends, then add the application and then add others. (Not sure if that will work like that though).

But well i think if a app is going to send private information it at least should tell you, so you can pass.

When i get the iphone i really won’t use it unless that is fixed. Because i want only close friends to find me, (including Justine too).

Veredict: Loop must listen so costumers will use their service ….

Jorge on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

I don’t have an iphone I want one but can’t afford it. This app sounds interesting. Stalkerish but Interesting.

I like Brite Kite but most of the time I don’t use it because I’m afraid someone you know might call the cops and prank or something.

And how the heck is apple allowing an application that sends out your personal information without asking you first?

iellie on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

Maybe you should go to:

http://www.truste.org/ivalidate.php?url=www.loopt.com&sealid=101

and click “File a watchdog complaint” on the righthand side.

I can’t imagine that their privacy policy allows them to send your phone number to people without your consent.

weisen on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

I think the biggest confusion was mostly that we weren’t aware of how they would be using SMS. I text a lot and use these types of services and none of them have gone directly into my contacts. I’m only slightly upset because I don’t really think this was something that was entirely thought through (but should have!) and I’m hoping it will be fixed in a future update..

After reading Martin’s comment regarding the MMA guidlines does make me wonder what’s up though.

ijustine on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

I don’t have an iPhone yet! I’m going to have to wait until next month when I’m eligible for an upgrade. Loopt sounds like a cool app and I’ll consider it if they get there act together and I don’t end up sending out a text to all my contacts. If Brightkite comes out with an app between now and the time I get my iPhone I’ll probably use it over loopt.

da_man on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

you should make an iPhone version of you blog so I can view it easier >_<..

Anyway yes I agree I typically hate loopt…

Sam on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

i’m amazed that limbo isn’t getting more traction out there with all of the problems loopt and whrrl and where seem to be having. i think limbo’s going to really take off - you can view people by what they’re doing. so i can see everyone who’s socializing for example, and don’t have to scroll through all the people who are sitting at home. well, now it’s not such a big deal, but if one day if you have 200 friends, you can see where it’s going. also, on limbo you can see where people are in the future - so if you want to plan for something tonight, you don’t have to wait until tonight.

Salty20 on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

Sue the bastards!

Ghoster on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

Sue the bastards!

GhostHost on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

Hey Justine. yeah. A friend told me that you sent your phone number to him. He was pretty amazed that you would do that.

I’m on Loopt. Thanks for sending me the friend request. I don’t give a crap about my mobile number. I have no friends

904-315-6602. ADD ME!

adam jackson on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

I just wanted to say… if I got a text message with iJustine’s phone number, I would be super excited, but I wouldn’t be stupid about it. I would respect her privacy and just delete the text message. Because I know that if she got a phone call from some unknown fan, that would just be a tad creepy… if Justine wants to talk to creepy fans, she can just get on blogtv. And unlike that adam kid… im not gonna give my phone number… because I know out of the people who may call it. Justine wouldnt be one of them. So… basically… I think this app. is better for unknown people… not people like iJustine who has a huge fanbase…. idk about you, but if people I didnt know had MY number I would freak.

Kudos on changing your number.

Sara on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

And I was just about to download it. Thanks for the info Justine. I told my friend who also has an iPhone. Good timing!

Shaprepenr on Jul 14th 2008 at 9:46 am

I’m so happy I got gun-shy on the “invite friends” portion of this app. I *thought* it seemed like it was about to do something like what you described and I aborted it and went to their web site on my computer instead and checked things out there.

I was hoping for more “proximity” based “discovery” of other users but that apparently isn’t what this is for. I don’t have any friends that would have all the necessary equipment (or desire) to use this app or service so I’m glad I didn’t spam my entire address book of mobile numbers.

Without other people who you know added to the app, it’s a pretty lonely interface. It’s just my little dot on the map surrounded by purple yelp reviewed restaurants and coffee shops. Sorta like my own little iPhone Google Maps version of “I Am Legend”

I’m curious to see what BrightKite does as their service seems to have a little more public facing discovery involved to it and isn’t so focused on pimping people’s address books.

Adam Turetzky on Jul 15th 2008 at 9:46 am

It’s really cute that you think people don’t know what BFF means.

Dan on Jul 15th 2008 at 9:46 am

@Sara

“adam kid”? Sigh. That is incredibly rude and disrespectful.

Adam on Jul 15th 2008 at 9:46 am

This sucks that it’s going into people’s contacts.
Someone should notify Apple and let them know this app isn’t up to MMA standard.
It seems like a cool app to have but it’s violating privacy of me and the people in my contacts.
Apple should check this stuff out before putting up the app :/

Madison on Jul 15th 2008 at 9:46 am

You’ve got me a little scared to get the app on my phone, Justine. I have phone numbers of people in my contacts list that I don’t want a text message with my number and location sent to.

Did anyone ever figure out how to avoid it?

Carla on Jul 15th 2008 at 9:46 am

That’s pretty slimy in my opinion. On the loopt blog, they apologize for the mishap but I think it was just a marketing test gone wrong. Give people a reason to be pumped about the service first and let them be the ones to spread the product to their friends and such. Brightkite is cool, but I’m waiting to see what the buzzd iphone app is going to be like. I’ve been using it here and there to find events and bar info on my phone. A few of my buddies are on the network and they can tell me what’s going on at a bar right now, which is way more important and safer to me than what loopt provides.

GSNYK33 on Jul 15th 2008 at 9:46 am

@Adam… oh… i didnt mean to cone off as rude… im sorry, dude..

Sara on Jul 15th 2008 at 9:46 am

Hi Justine,

On behalf of Loopt, I want to help clarify some of the confusion regarding Loopt’s invite process. For those of who are following this post, we’ve posted an explanatory note on Loopt’s blog: http://loopt.typepad.com/loopt/2008/07/iphone-invite-c.html, and posted here for ease:

“When you clicked the “Who’s on Loopt” button, all of your contacts that are current Loopt users were auto-selected to receive invites. A total count of people receiving invites appeared at the bottom of the screen. However, we have since disabled that functionality due to customer feedback and confusion. We are working on an improved invite flow that will include an invite confirmation screen that will be released very soon.”

We’re working hard right now to make changes to the invite process such that it is clear to you, the user, who you are inviting. We will also provide a way such that you can choose to not receive SMSs from Loopt.

Hope this helps, and if there are any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at support@loopt.com

Best,
Min, on behalf of Loopt

Min on Jul 15th 2008 at 9:46 am

@Ryan Hague “They just don’t care about apps like that, which makes me wish I were in a more technology friendly city. What can ya do?”

way to harsh on our city Mr. Hague. it is not San Francisco but it ain’t Valdosta either. (granting the lovely city that is Valdosta)

As per the “loopt debacle”, well I guess it was a good thing that before I added the loopt app, that Upgrade 2.0 …

blanked my _entire_ contact list.

Now there is amy almost silver lining.

Francis Burdett on Jul 16th 2008 at 9:46 am

I didn’t mind the invite message part so much, though it did raise an alert in my head.

The app has so much to gain. If ppl mind the sign up and invitation mechanism, they should definitely fix it and move on. I will continue to annoy my buddies with invitations regardless.

… having said all the positives, I am annoyed that I ran into a complete OS crash a couple of times as I was launching Loopt.

ryos on Jul 16th 2008 at 9:46 am

There are so many LBS apps out there… Loopt, Whrrl, Brightkite and sniff. Thanks for your feedback on Loopt. I know Brightkit operates differently and I’ve been reading up on sniff, which was released in England earlier this summer and seems to be really picking up steam there. Hopefully it comes across the pond to give some good competition to Loopt and Brightkite! I don’t know much about Whrrl, but I found it on Google all the same.

Lane on Jul 16th 2008 at 9:46 am

Chicks? On my Internet?

Awesome.

Also, the “auto- your contact list” debate has been going on since last.fm and all those started doing it with e-mails. I call old!

Anonymous Swede (although traced by government) on Jul 16th 2008 at 9:46 am