Droppie is a new app that lets people take pictures and share them – with complete strangers. Whereas most social apps generally have you sharing pictures with your friends and family (or at the very least, people you know), Droppie aims to turn the convention of social media communication upside down.
The brainchild of self-proclaimed, Slovakian tech geeks, Marek Sandor and Martin Herman, the app works like this: You snap a picture at any location and can add captions to it. That could be your local restaurant, the library, or your favorite watering hole. There are no limitations on where the app lets you shoot.
Then, you simply leave – or “drop,” in the app’s parlance – your image in that exact spot where it was taken. Your photo then stays in that restaurant, library, or watering hole (virtually, of course) until another Droppie user happens to come by. He or she then gets an alert that a “drop” occurred in that spot, and has the option to pick it up and reply, or just leave it. You can then engage with one another, and possibly form a new friendly.
Before you worry about an endless stream of strangers picking up your drops, consider this: Every drop is limited to just five people who can pick it up and reply to its photographer. After that, the drop disappears for good.
The implication for an app like this is all sorts of new relationships that can form from chance meetings between fellow Droppie users. The only thing users have to share with others is their temporary location. Time will tell if users will warm up to an app whose main goal is to put them in touch with complete strangers. Nonetheless, it can also be used between friends and people who already know each other. It makes a fun treasure-hunt activity, too.
According to a Droppie press release, during its first week of beta testing, the app received 25,000 downloads, and 130,000 pictures were dropped. Its makers are now expanding the app’s reach by targeting the U.S. market.
This social tool is available on iOS, and its developers are currently working on an Android release.
