Loopt Launches First Always-On, Location-Aware iPhone App - Hopefully Others Will Follow Soon
Loopt, a location-aware mobile application and social network, just announced that it will become the first third-party iPhone app that will be able to offer an always-on location service on the iPhone. From what we have seen, AT&T officially sanctioned this feature, which Loopt already offers on other platforms. Normally, apps can't run in the background on the iPhone. This is clearly a severe limitation for a lot of developers, and few developers have the clout to get around this limitation the way Loopt apparently did (Loopt demoed its app at WWDC last year).
What Loopt is Doing
While the details of this 'hack' are not quite clear, it looks like the iPhone will keep a conduit open to AT&T or Loopt's server that will continuously update a user's location via the iPhone's built-in GPS chip. Loopt is only allowing 5,000 users into this program for now. You can sign up for the test here; just note that after an initial 14-day trial, Loopt will put a $3.99 charge on your AT&T bill each month for this service.
Once this feature is active, Loopt will always know where you are and alert you automatically when you are close to a friend who also uses the service. Until now, you had to open the app and 'check in' to update your location. By running in the background, Loopt will be able to just alert you automatically without the hassle of you having to open the app - something most users are unlikely to do after trying out the app for the first time.
A number of mobile phones, including Android phones and the Palm Pre, allow apps to run in the background (and Loopt is available on most of these). Apple's push notifications only really work for apps that can already run independently on a web server and wait for an email, breaking news event, or Twitter DM to come in. Apps that use push notifications can't actually wake up apps on the phone and download location data or access any other data on the phone. Loopt, obviously, isn't actually running in the background on the phone either, but thanks to the way Loopt has implemented this feature, a user would never actually know the difference.
Other Apps We Would Like to See Doing This
The ingenuity of the hack and the fact that AT&T is allowing Loopt to route around the iPhone's limitation is interesting in its own right. It's even more interesting to think about the other services that could benefit from this service. Obviously, Loopt's competitors like Brightkite and Whrll come to mind here, but advertisers would also be very interested in location-aware services that could alert users to deals at nearby stores (though such alerts could quickly become annoying).
The same technique - keeping a pipeline to an app's server open - could also benefit another class of apps that hasn't gotten a lot of attention yet: cross-reality apps (for the background on these apps, which are somewhat related to augmented reality apps, see our discussion of cross reality and sensors here). Services such as CenceMe, which uses the iPhone's sensors to check if you are walking, sitting, running or in a loud place, also currently need to be running exclusively on the iPhone to work.
Hopefully - Apple will soon just allow apps to run in the background. While other platforms already offer this feature, none of them come close to the popularity of the iPhone or have a similarly convenient app marketplace.
What's Next?
What applications do you hope will use this technique next on the iPhone? Cross-reality apps? A location-aware social networking app from Facebook? Google Latitude?
ShareRelated Entries
1 TrackBacks
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.readwriteweb.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/12727
Facebook
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts
I used Loopt for a few months early this year; I liked the functionality but the community features seemed to be dominated by people using it as a geolocational equivalent of Craigslist's 'casual encounters'. So I switched to Brightkite. I'll give it another shot.
From what I've read elsewhere the phone's location is determined by cell tower triangulation and not via the iPhone's built-in GPS chip. It would require the Loopt app or an iPhone location service to be always running for the phone's GPS location to be known, wouldn't it? This sounds like how LBS services have been running for many years -- they require help from the carrier and it has little to do with the device itself.
If AT&T is getting paid for this, then my guess is that this has nothing to do with Apple allowing background apps at all. AT&T is probably reading the phone location off of cell towers and feeding that info to Loopt.
In addition, of all the things to allow as a background application application, a location tracker seems like the worst of them (as cool as it might be). Actual GPS usage really sucks down battery life and is really only useful when you are out of doors where it can get a good satellite signal.
I think the way that they managed this is that $3.99 charge that at&t gets to put on this bill.
Frederic, well-written article. You brought up the $3.99 per month cost of Loopt after the trial phase and it got me to thinking about the significant effect a bunch of apps can have on a cell bill. The Loopt app itself sounds great, but in an economy where most of us are trying to tightly budget, I think it's important that we not sign up for too many subscription apps and forget they're there until it's too late and the inflated bill is in our hands in front of us. in light of that, I wanted to add that I can speak to reducing cell bills in particular. I suppose my point here is that moderation and effective bill management are crucial. To that point, I'll also add that I work in the consumer advocacy division of the company Validas, where we electronically audit and subsequently reduce the average cell bill by 22 percent through our website, http://www.fixmycellbill.com. Put simply, Validas guards against the frivolous and unnecessary charges that over-inflate an estimated 80 percent of cell bills. You can find out for free if fixmycellbill.com can modify your plan to better suit your individual needs by going to the website.
For more info, check out Validas in the new media, most recently on Fox News at http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/consumer/conlaw/lower_cell_phone_bills_072409.
Good luck to everyone reading on cutting your wireless costs, and enjoy those apps that are worth it.
Dylan
Consumer Advocacy, FixMyCellBill.com
Edit: In my last post, the URL of the article I linked too includes a period on the end that shouldn't be there and thus sends you to a black page. The correct link is:
http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/consumer/conlaw/lower_cell_phone_bills_072409
Thanks!
Man this is ridiculous and quite honestly a scary road we are going down. I'm sure phones would looove to start charging a monthly fee for every app that ran in the background and in the past iPhones are the trend setters. Plllllease do not sign up for this subscription. Palm and other devices do this for absolutely free. If you're that desperate, just jailbreak your phone please. If you haven't noticed just about every carrier is trying to find new ways to charge for bandwith. AT&T doesn't have the $15 month media pack anymore coming in early September. It's 30 dollars or no phone at all. Tmobile is also raising their rates to help 'insure the user experience' (not exact quotes). And now AT&T wants to charge 4 dollars a month for something that doesn't even use data, maybe at most 15-30kilobites ever so often (size of a text message). This is just rediculous. Can u image running all your apps in the background for a charge when the phone is 100% capable of doing it for free?? You will be paying $60 month for data. Everyone get a google
phone, blackberry, or palm pre or at least don't subscribe to this. Please continue to speak out. Post things, Twitter and blog this if your as mad as me. It's sad cuz I used to be such a defender of iPhone but now it's just one more thing to make fun of iPhone users like myself.
This is terrific news. I have long been frowning at the idea of being an iPhone owner that will never experience location-based reminders because of Apple's restrictions. I would be more than happy to pay for the service if that's what it takes, assuming the app is free.
Loopt and others like it are full of weirdos.
If you're as interested in privacy as I am try the new "closed social" apps like Inner Circle. They allow the same capabilities but limit your info to friends and families.