The Story

Technology, by its very nature, is regularly conjuring up with new tools for us to communicate with each other.  Smoke signals, semaphore, telegraph, telephone, fax, email – and now Bump. Each Bump is, in fact, a digital handshake two suitable smartphones that enables you to transfer contact details, images, or even entire apps by gently tapping the handsets together.

The Experience

As you’d expect, both of the phones involved in the transfer process need to be running the Bump app (it’s also available for the iPhone and iPad) in order for the magic to happen. Then, you simply choose what information you like to share with the recipient and, er… bump away.

The science behind Bump isn’t important (it involves a web connection, location data, clever algorithms and, we think, some pickled monkey’s paws) but the effect is this: within seconds, you will be able to swap business cards or entire photo-libraries without the need for cables, memory cards – or, indeed, an ape. The bigger the files, the longer it takes, and a wi-fi connection is, obviously, preferable if these have some meat to them.

Both phones will obviously have to OK each transfer for it to go ahead, and you can always choose exactly what you want to share, even if this is nothing at all. Updates expected to come soon include the ability to Bump with somebody else in order to find a suitable gap in both of your calendars and even (gentle now) Bump-based games. Oh, it seems such a long time since one had to stand, with Filofax and pen at the ready, in order to jot down a phone number that you later discovered was entirely illegible.

The Bottom Line

Bump gives secure digital communications a personal touch

Additional Info

Version tested: 1.3.2
Requires Android 1.5+