Microsoft’s new location-based application that allows users to share their locations with others could be available in Australia within months, after launching in the United States overnight.
The Bing-powered “We’re In” Windows Phone 7 app, which may be made available in Australia via ninemsn — a 50/50 partnership between Microsoft and Channel Nine — allows users to share their locations with others.
“It’s simple, invite your friends, and when they join, they’ll see your location and you’ll see theirs,” Microsoft explains. ”When the invite expires, so does the shared location – no complicated process to worry about.”
Users send the invites via SMS to friends within their contact list, with the link enabling those on the receiving end of an invite to view the senders location via the We’re In app or through a mobile website. As they view the senders location, their own location is shared on the map with both the sender and other invite recipients.
Those using the service can also share status updates with other invite recipients.
A ninemsn spokesperson told iTech Report this afternoon that although the project is currently part of a pilot trial, if successful there are plans for the app to become available in Australia within months.
“Bing’s ‘We’re In’ app is a pilot project currently running on the Windows Phone platform. Due to regulations limitations regarding the usage of users location data in a number of countries, the pilot is initially limited to the United States market,” the spokesperson said.
“Depending on the success of the pilot, the feature will be rolled out in the coming months to other markets (including Australia) and additional mobile platforms.”
It’s likely the other platforms include Google’s Android operating system and Apple’s iOS software, both of which are leading the smartphone craze currently engulfing the world’s mobile markets.
Google already offers its own similar service, Google Latitude, which works across multiple platforms.
Nice app for windows phone lovers. But what are Pros, Cons, restrictions and will user use it, check this:
http://alldailyupdatesandnews.blogspot.com/2011/08/microsoft-releases-were-in-bing-app.html
I don’t think this app will make some recognition for it.
Australian’s already have access to a home grown Mobile social networking app – ThreeHR – ( http://www.threehr.com ). It’s free and it’s a web application so it runs across all major platforms – Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows Phone7 etc. Already with facebook integration, geo-location (that expires), social networking, aggregation… cheers.