Introducing weBump 1.5

Hello everyone! In honor of weBump 1.5, I want to explain what weBump is, how it works, and how to use it. (If you want the origin story, I wrote about how I built it this summer.)

What is weBump?

weBump is a new type of social media. There's no feed to scroll through, no algorithm to fall into, and no access beyond your immediate surroundings. I call this proximity social media. Everyone who has weBump installed and running in the background can see when they pass each other. Each new bump lands in the plaza, and the profiles there grow with every one.

Getting started is simple:

• No logins. There's no account to create.
• Pick an age bracket instead of entering a birthday.
• Choose what to fill out on your profile.
• Choose what strangers see. Sharing is opt-in, piece by piece.

Once you're in the plaza, you can see the main functionality in action. I have an iPad with weBump installed too, and with discovery on, my phone and iPad bump each other immediately. After you install the app, you can keep it running in the background and you'll still collect bumps.

To keep collecting bumps in the background, leave Bluetooth on and don't swipe the app away.

Why use it?

Why proximity social media is so special may not be clear right away, so consider this scenario. Imagine you're a freshman at a large university, and you're just beginning to make friends. As you make your way through your classes, you collect bumps left and right. But some bubbles are larger than others, because you bump the same person every day. You check their profile, and you actually share a lot of interests! You tap their Instagram and follow them.

A few weeks go by, and the person who was once lost in the crowd of the lecture hall is now a familiar face. One you get coffee with, become friends with, or even just smile at every time you see them. weBump brings people together instead of making them feel far apart. And this extends beyond college campuses. Imagine concerts, workplaces, or really anywhere there's a community.

Beyond that, the app can bring delight to other services. Through the public API, developers can integrate weBump into their own apps, allowing for more personal experiences populated by the people you've bumped. You can try this out with the playable racing demo, and I'm working with developers to get more of these going.

How does it work?

In 2020, Apple and Google collaborated to introduce COVID exposure notifications. Phones broadcast random, anonymous codes over Bluetooth, and nearby phones kept track of them. The codes changed every few minutes, so no one could be followed by them. But if someone you'd been near later tested positive, your phone could still know you'd crossed paths. weBump works in a similar way.

When discovery is on, your phone emits a random ID that refreshes every 15 minutes. Here's what happens next:

1. When two phones with weBump installed pass each other, they trade these Rolling IDs.
2. Your phone asks the weBump server to turn the ID into a card.
3. The server checks the request, makes sure the ID is recent, and returns only what that person has chosen to share with strangers.

That's a bump.

All of this happens in the background, whether your phone is in your pocket or sitting on your desk.

Privacy and safety

A bump should create a connection, not a trail.

An app that knows when people pass each other has to be careful, and that's weBump's approach in one line. (You can also read the full How Safety Works page and the privacy policy.)

Consider the alternative. Say your phone broadcast the same number all day. Someone could leave a cheap Bluetooth receiver by a building entrance and see that number at 8:12, again at lunch, and again the next morning. They wouldn't know your name, but they'd know your routine. That's exactly why Rolling IDs change every 15 minutes. Holding one isn't enough to see a profile either. The server only resolves recent IDs, only for real weBump installs, and never between people who have blocked each other.

Here's how weBump protects you:

• No location. There's no GPS, no map, and no travel history. Your bumps live on your phone, not on a server.
• You decide what strangers see. Your area, school, bio, music, and socials each have their own switch, and you can preview exactly what a stranger will see.
• Your age stays private. Other people only ever see a "Similar age" label. For users under 18, school sharing with strangers is turned off, and that's enforced by the server, not just the app, so it can't be switched back on.
• Delayed notifications. You can delay the notification someone gets when they bump you, anywhere from a minute to a full day, or turn it off completely. That way a bump never announces the exact moment and place you crossed paths.
• Block and report. Blocking removes that person from your bumps and stops either of you from seeing the other again. Reports are reviewed, and a snapshot is saved so the profile can't be edited to hide what was reported.
• An easy way out. You can turn discovery off, clear your bumps, or use Start Over to delete everything tied to your install.

Safer doesn't mean invisible. Bluetooth is a radio, and any phone using it can be noticed. That's why weBump layers these protections instead of relying on any single one.

What's next

weBump is riding a simple formula: the more users, the more delightful the app is to use. So the plan is simple too: grow the app. Through targeted advertising, maybe across campuses or at planned events, the app can find success community by community. Instead of targeting large areas, weBump needs dense hotspots.

That's work for me, but you can help too! Make weBump a fun thing for your friend group. See who bumps each other the most, and feel the notification in your pocket every time you meet up.

weBump is free on the App Store, and you can learn more at webump.app. Thanks for reading!