Color: A Social-Networking Phone App That Connects to People Around You

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Word to the wise: This app is not for people who can’t handle Foursquare. But if you can get past sharing your location to the world (and love to tweet and Facebook with rabid enthusiasm), Color, a social-network-slash-phone-app, is an interesting social network that’s designed to meet people.

Color is basically a smartphone application that streams other Color users’ pictures, images and videos real-time based on their proximity to you. The app determines this location based on your phone’s GPS or Bluetooth system. Instead of having usernames, everyone is tied by their phones. No one “friends” or “follows” anyone here.

If you’re the type to go incognito and hide behind your sunglasses in large crowds, you should be warned. Anything shared to Color is basically public to anyone, anywhere, at anytime. Once photos and videos are shared with the app, they are displayed to people 100 feet around your location.

People can like or comment on your items, and yay, an online “friend” now has the possibility to become your new best buddy in real life. It’s designed to introduce new people into your social network, unlike Facebook where people often only befriend people they know.

So where could you use Color? I wouldn’t exactly pull it out at a private event or a baby shower, but a bar, music festival or a certain interactive technology conference could having interesting results. Any place where lots of geeky people hang out.

The app also keeps track of your own activity. Bill Nguyen, CEO of Color, said, “This is like TIVO-ing life. There’s no forgetting. I think it’s the best, most complete way of having a record of your life. It’s your life crowdsourced.”

Color launched yesterday on iPhone and Android, and plans to eventually expand to BlackBerry and Windows 7.

For more on Color, check out Harry McCracken’s impressions at Time’s partner site, Technologizer.

(via Huffington Post)

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