Untappd
So who’s using Untappd?
I have an interest in how beer intersects with technology—in particular the technology of the web and computing. Sites like RateBeer (massive database of many things beer with crowdsourced ratings), the Beer Recipator (calculating and tracking homebrew recipes), blogs (of course), and the Beer Mapping Project (combining Google Maps with breweries and reviews) all utilize the web in interesting and innovative ways and provide invaluable benefits to the (online) beer lover.
And along comes Untappd, which combines the rating/review aspect of beers with social media and optional location-based tracking: as a website and mobile app for smartphones, it’s essentially a “Foursquare for beer”—it serves as a real-time snapshot of what people are drinking and where, and allows others to see and comment on those beers. When you “check in” to a brew from your phone, you are effectively telling people that this is the beer you are drinking right now.
In some aspects Untappd simply serves as another method of tracking, rating, and commenting on the beers you’re drinking (as Josh Christie covered a couple of months ago). What sets it apart, however, is the real-time aspect that is imparted to the tracking, along with the social angle (see what your friends are drinking right now as well, comment on or “toast” their beers) and the location-based aspect: if you happen to be at a brewery or bar when you’re checking in to your beer, Untappd will hook into your mobile phone’s location-finding service (if it has one) and let you specify where you are drinking as well as what. (It does in fact use the Foursquare API for this.)
The natural question that arises from this (indeed, it’s my own question as well) is, “Why?” What’s the benefit of using Untappd?
Right now, the main benefit is fun: it’s another avenue for sharing beer with your friends (indeed, you can optionally let Untappd announce your beers on Twitter and Facebook as well as its own site) and you get rewarded for doing so—like Foursquare, users can earn “badges” for various tasks completed or “secrets unlocked” which lend a game-like air to it. Examples of some of these badges include:
- Beer Connoisseur: “Travel much? You must be a “brewsetter”. That’s at least 5 beers from 5 different countries.”
- Winter Wonderland: “It’s cold outside – warm up with 5 different Winter Beer. Happy Holidays from Untappd!”
- Journeyman: “You’re getting the hang of it, but there’s much more to try. That’s over 50 unique brews!”
- Brew Crawl: “Can’t stay in the same place for 1 night? That’s 3 bars in 1 night.”
Of course, these badges are entirely virtual and only have meaning on Untappd—but that doesn’t matter, they’re fun to unlock. (On the wisdom of turning drinking beer into something like a game is another topic entirely.)
The best feature, in my opinion, is the ability for users to enter new beers and breweries to the service (you can optionally indicate whether these are homebrews as well)—a brilliant option that harnesses the power of the users (crowdsourcing) to build their beer database (something that would be entirely too daunting if not impossible singly). I’ve entered several of commercial beers that were not yet loaded into the system, as well as a number of my own homebrews (along with my virtual homebrewery, “Desert Sage Brewing”), thus putting my homebrews on equal footing with every other beer in the database and allowing others the opportunity (should they ever have it) of drinking and checking in on those beers themselves.
So back to the question I opened with: who’s using Untapped? I am—and you can find (and friend) me at my username chuggnutt.
13 Comments to “Untappd”
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I use it…..I get a kick out of it and it gives me something to do when drinking…
Unfortunately if you are using Windows Mobile 7 there are a couple bugs and you cant use the Geolocation feature.
I am getting tired of typing in ratings. Its become more of a chore than fun for me. Using untappd will allow me to keep track of the beer I have tried. Its much easier for me.
Since I only JUST got a smart phone last week, i have just started using untappd. I’m really enjoying the social aspect, seeing what my friends are drinking and then going out looking for them. I have an iPhone 4 and unfortunately the app is extremely slow to load sometimes.
I enjoy it mostly because it is fun, but a big thing for me is seeing what other people are drinking, especially if they are beers I have not had or heard of. I can then add to a wish list, which is great when deciding what to look for.
I love the untappd. I’ve tried more new beers than ever based on the recommendations that come up after you entered your brew of choice. I also like the fact that I can keep up with what my beer geek friends are drinking.
I just joined Untappd over the weekend and think it’s pretty cool. Hey Jon, accept my friend request!
I use Untappd on my Droid and like being able to see what my friends are drinking and where. Biggest drawback is the duplicate entries, so hopefully they are able to address that at some point.
Like Four Square, I find it to be rather useless. There’s to much “checking in” and not a lot of real interaction. Great for people who are the centre of their own universe or brewers who want to rate their own beers 5/5… and the usability is awful. I imagine most others will move on unless it changes significantly.
If it improves, it could be trouble for the slow moving beeradvocate and ratebeer.
I’m mixed. The app is horrible as far as usability. I pretty much stopped because it just took too damn long to load anything and lets face it, “drinking socially” is not sitting around waiting for pages on your phone to load while trying to carry on a conversation with your friends at the bar. If by myself at home and having a beer, I still check in sometimes when I think of it. I don’t rate anymore, so I can see this being a good way to keep track of new beers that I try. At the same time, it just needs to be a smoother app that I’ll actually use when out trying new beers.
my pages load pretty quickly……
I am using and enjoying it. I use it mainly to track what beers I have tried and will occasionally write short tasting notes. I use the rating system more to track how well I liked a beer than as a serious analysis of the beer quality. Only big issues I have are that I get crap cell reception at my favorite bar which makes the site hard to use, and the ability to only check in every 10 minutes is a pain in the ass when I am trying to track tasters.
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