Loopt Advances Communication and Discovery Tools, Re-designs Application

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Loopt, the best way to connect with people and places around you, today introduced a new version of its application, which magnifies the app?s friend- and place-finding capabilities with new features and a completely updated design.

?Loopt offers a location-first view of the world, shining a spotlight on friends and places around you, whether they?re on Loopt or Facebook?

Each new Loopt feature better utilizes the smartphone?s communication and discovery capabilities. All components contribute to a richer experience for people while they?re out and about, displaying a local area?s social relevance for each user. New location-sharing options especially serve people who have become fatigued with checking in.

New survey findings* from Loopt show that location-centric messages such as ?where are you?,? ?I?m here? and ?be right there? rank as the top text messages used (43% of survey respondents ranked these in the top three). Accordingly, Loopt?s Ping feature now serves as an all-encompassing location-based text message. With the addition of text, Loopt?s ?Ping? is a simpler way to find out where people are, or to mass-message all friends who are checked in at a place (see a video about Ping here).

?Loopt offers a location-first view of the world, shining a spotlight on friends and places around you, whether they?re on Loopt or Facebook,? said Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO, Loopt. ?When our users open Loopt, they see the world in a more relevant way. We continue to work at surfacing interesting information that makes Loopt like x-ray vision, where you can see through city walls and find something compelling, whether it?s being alerted that an old friend is nearby, or that there?s a café around the corner frequented by friends.?

In detail, feature updates to Loopt include (see video here):

• Notifications: A feed of the latest Loopt activity, such as nearby places your friends like to go, and allows you to respond to Pings, friend requests, and see nearby rewards. Here, users will also find ?hot? places nearby (this includes places their friends have gone and where a significant amount of Loopt users have gone).
• Simplified background location sharing: Turn background location sharing on or off for a subset of close friends/family so they can see where you are any time, even if the app isn?t open; everyone else only sees you when you check in. This marks a shift in location sharing. The ability to share background location persistently with close friends creates new sharing opportunities for those who don?t want to check in, and a chance for surprise and delight when you?re alerted a friend is nearby.
• Connect with friends in more ways: Loopt is adding text to the existing Ping messages (which previously just requested a friend?s location), which eliminates the need for meet-up text messages like ?where are you?? and ?almost there,? by pairing a map with those messages. Loopt lets you Ping your Facebook friends as well (by posting a note on their wall).
• Friend list sorting: More sophisticated list sorting of friends, into nearby, recent and by name.
• Find and connect with friends around places: A Places button is now at the center of Loopt?s home screen, incorporating check-in functionality, and also now including more friend- and place-finding features. Find out if friends have been to a place, if they are nearby a place you checked in, or if they are there right now. From a Place page, you can Ping all your friends at that place with a group message.

Loopt also announced today that the company is migrating rewards from its popular rewards-only app, Loopt Star, into Loopt. To kick things off, Loopt is expanding the popular Loopt Star ?Discover the Music Around You? reward to the Loopt platform (the reward gives users five free songs from Loopt ? with artists including Lady Gaga, Florence and the Machine, and more ? for checking into any U.S. bar). Since its launch, Loopt Star has featured rewards from major brands, and more rewards like these will soon come to Loopt. To celebrate the debut of rewards in Loopt, the company will be hosting music events, which will feature more rewards for consumers and are scheduled in New York, San Francisco and Atlanta, Georgia. More information will be available soon here.

About Loopt

Loopt is the best way to connect to people and places around you. Loopt produces a suite of mobile applications including Loopt and Loopt Mix, to allow users to discover the world around them. Loopt products use location on mobile phones to help users find and enjoy the friends, places and events around them right now. Phones with Loopt include the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 (see www.loopt.com/phones for all supported handsets.) The Loopt services have more than 4 million registered users and partnerships with every major U.S. mobile phone carrier. Loopt applications offer a variety of effective and intuitive privacy controls. Find Loopt at www.loopt.com, www.twitter.com/loopt and www.facebook.com/loopt

*Survey conducted online in November 2010 by Loopt, Inc.

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Loopt, Inc.

Sharon Howell, 650-230-6069
press@loopt.com