My roommate is utterly and completely obsessed with this app. He tells me where his friends are and what they’re up to probably about every 15 minutes. Due to the genius of Loopt, all he has to do to connect with one of his friends is go to the list icon at the bottom of the screen. Then all of his friends who also have the app will come up. He touches a person’s name to get his or her most recent location and then chooses “ping” to send an alert of where he is via text message. His friend “pongs” him back and viola, everyone knows where everyone is.

If you want more specific information so you can actually find people, say to meet up for coffee, you can also find their exact locations on a map in Microsoft Virtual World and get directions to where they are. Additionally, you can view the most recent photo they’ve uploaded and any information they’ve posted on what they’re currently doing.

My roommate uses this app more for fun than for planning, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t get everyone in the office Loopt together to notify them of a meeting or use it to find your friend who got hopelessly lost on the way to your house. The only problem I’ve come across is that you can only find people who have Loopt on their phones and to sign up for it you have to register. This will turn off at least a few people and kill any chance of keeping tabs on your entire social circle.

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