Everyone hates business cards, right? Remembering to actually take them to events and not losing those that others give to you isn’t exactly easy. Zap for iPhone wants to bring the business card into the smartphone age.
Zap lets you create a virtual business card in a few seconds from your social profile — like LinkedIn or Twitter — then makes it shareable with a simple flick motion to make it appear on the other person’s screen. The idea is simple, but addictive when you’re making virtual business cards rain.
You can customize your business card from a handful of supplied layouts that resemble the real-world idea. If the recipient doesn’t have Zap, you can share your card via other methods like SMS, social media or email.
Once you receive a card, Zap keeps it up to date with the latest information and provides some recent social updates inline, as well.. Zap also sends you an email recap later about the people you met and encourages you to follow up with them.
Others have tried in the business card space and failed; Bump, an app that let you share your details with a phone-bump launched in 2011 but eventually closed down.
Zap, however, makes it easy to share your card without actually needing to touch phones together and encourages you to follow up on people you’ve met, which is far more important than just receiving a card.
Co-founder and CEO of Zap, Mike Mason, said that “The value of ‘zapping’ someone is what happens afterward. We give you insights into what the sender has been saying online, recap the meeting via detailed email notification and help you further the connection in the days following.”
Zap is available for free on iOS, with an Android version coming in the future.
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