Gowalla is quickly becoming one of my favorite Android apps and I’ve never even used it. I have however been playing with their new mobile site and I find it strangely addicting. Just like Waze turned driving into a game, Gowalla is doing the same for your daily activities.
The geolocation checkin service allows users to share their experiences with friends (via Facebook and Twitter) and discover new locations. Users also get to stamp their virtual passport and earn rewards at the places that they visit.
Gowalla has badges for everything.
Even though I’m super impressed with the mobile site, I have been eagerly waiting for a native Android app. We reported a beta should be available by SXSW and maybe as early as this month.
Gowalla co-founder Josh Williams (watch interview) posted the following update on their support forums:
A native first-party Android app is in development. Our goal is to release the first beta within a couple weeks with a near final beta build available in late February.
A big thank you to everyone for your patience. We don’t like that its taken so long, but our goal has been to do this right and provide a premium experience on the Android platform. We don’t want it to play second fiddle to the iPhone.Josh WilliamsGowalla
Check out the screen below for what to expect.
Gowalla for Android.
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Taylor Wimberly
Taylor is the founder of Android and Me. He loves playing with all kinds of gadgets, but most importantly cell phones. His other hobbies include cooking (BBQ hero!), politics, football, and watching every MMA event possible.
8 Comments
forgive my ignorance, is this not just a rip of foursquare?
Well, you could say Foursquare is actually a rip of Brightkite. Kind of goes both ways.
Brightkite is just a rip off of actual social interaction and having friends
Then what does that make Facebook? Your points are moot.. I think Gowalla and Foursquare are nice services but they provide no social engagement, something Brightkite does well. However, I do wish Brightkite added a gaming aspect that encouraged more usage, that is the main benefactor that Foursquare provides — people seem to love competition.
I’m loving Gowalla too. That screenshot looks dead sexy.
I am very excited for the release of the android app. I’ve been using the mobile web version for some time, but it will be nice to get all the bells and whistles.
tried using this at work today, it brought up almost every store/resturant by me except for my place of business which is a retail store. I tried to manually enter the location but it seemed like gowalla froze when loading the page to ddg new locations.
Looks cool, but the rates would kill me if I used it traveling internationally, which kinds of defeats the purpose.