Glympse Debuts Mobile Location-Sharing for Everyone

I’ve never quite understood the whole position sharing thing with other people online, I’m a relatively private person, well as private as I can get with being online all over the place, but I don’t see a reason to want want to let everyone know where I am at all times?! But if you’re one of those people and you’ve got a T-Mobile Android device then you might like this little app.. and it will be available for WinMo, Blackberry and iPhone soon..

Simple, Safe Way to Share Location with Anyone for a Specified Period of Time Using GlympseWatch(TM) Timer Now Available in Public Beta

REDMOND, Wash., May 19 /PRNewswire/ — In today’s fast-paced world, we routinely share information about our location with multiple people several times per day. This is traditionally done via email, phone call or text message — until now. Glympse Inc. today unveiled the public beta of its namesake service, Glympse(TM), offering the quickest and easiest way to safely share location from a mobile phone to help users visually answer the common question of "Where are you?" Only Glympse allows users to share their whereabouts with anyone they choose for a set amount of time using the company’s patent-pending GlympseWatch(TM) technology. Initially available on T-Mobile G1(TM) phones with Android, Glympse will soon be available on the iPhone, BlackBerry(R), Windows Mobile(R) and other leading smartphone devices.

With Glympse, people can quickly share their location, pinpointed on a dynamic map, with anyone in their contact list as easily as sending a text message or making a phone call. There is no need to invite friends and wait for acceptance or create and manage yet another social network. Once downloaded to their phone, users can "glympse" anyone they choose. They simply select or enter a phone number or email for one or more contacts, set the duration they want their location to be visible to the recipient(s), and hit send.

On the receiving end, a Glympse message is easily opened by clicking on a unique URL that launches a real-time map showing the sender’s location, speed of travel, and – if a destination has been designated – the estimated arrival time. Anyone with an Internet-enabled mobile device or email address can view the sender’s whereabouts for as long as the sender has allowed, turn-by-turn, in full interactive fidelity. While there is no need to download software to receive or view a Glympse, a recipient will have a more dynamic experience if they also have Glympse installed on their phone.

"Current location-sharing options don’t have the flexibility to integrate into our dynamic daily lives. We created Glympse to help people exchange location information in a way that’s much more rich and powerful than phone calls and texts, but just as easy," said Bryan Trussel, co-founder and CEO of Glympse, Inc. "In reality, there are very few people who we want to know where we are all of the time; yet, there are lots of people who we want to know where we are some of the time. Only Glympse offers the ability to share your location with exactly whom you want, for exactly how long you choose."

The GlympseWatch timer allows users to determine exactly how long their location will be shared with each Glympse message, from a few minutes or up to four hours. A sender has the ability to "pause" or "cancel" a Glympse at any time or choose to extend an existing Glympse before it expires. The GlympseWatch timer acts as an "auto shut off" security feature, addressing the concern that users can easily forget to turn off location-sharing mode and unintentionally broadcast their location at inappropriate times.

Glympse’s unique time-based approach makes it appropriate for use with a much broader list of people encountered in daily life, including everyone a user would normally share location with via a phone call, email or text message. This includes not only family and friends, but also business associates, casual acquaintances, and people you may be meeting once and do not want to know your location on an ongoing basis.

Glympse was built with simplicity, consumer privacy and security at its core, affording users complete control over who sees them, when and for how long. Users do not need to create an account to use the service, eliminating cumbersome login and password hassles, as well as privacy concerns about the possibility of broadcasting whereabouts indiscriminately. Glympse users are given the option of adding a photo and nickname or an optional message to appear on the map with their location, but this is not a requirement to use the service.

"Status and location updates are becoming the standard units of social media, especially on the mobile device," says Michael Boland, analyst and program director, mobile local media, The Kelsey Group. "Glympse gets to the essence of mobile social interaction with novel location sharing capabilities. Importantly, this is done in a low-barrier fashion that uses common standards like SMS, and doesn’t require additional downloads on the receiving end."

USAGE SITUATIONS

The simplicity of Glympse makes it relevant and easy-to-use in a wide variety of daily situations. For example:

  --  Family: Teen can glympse his or her parents during a night out without
      repeated phone calls or feeling as though their freedom is being
      inhibited; Mom can glympse the family on the way home from work so
      they know she's stuck in traffic without having to go back and forth
      over email, text message or the phone, which is illegal for drivers in
      some states.
  --  Business: Boss can send a Glympse to his assistant so participants in
      his/her next meeting know when to convene; delivery person can send a
      Glympse to a one-time client to communicate their arrival time; sales
      rep can glympse a prospect for a one-time lunch meeting to let them
      know he's running late, but almost there.

  --  Social: Friends can glympse a destination and meeting time for a
      Friday evening out, or let their friends join them whenever and
      wherever they want; a runner or long-distance cyclist can update
      friends along their route.

The Glympse public beta is currently available for download on T-Mobile G1 phones from the Android Market, and will be widely available on other top smartphones in the near future. To see Glympse in action or to register another smartphone for notification of upcoming Glympse releases, visit www.glympse.com.

About Glympse Inc.

Based in the Seattle area, Glympse, Inc. was founded in March 2008 by three former Microsoft veterans – Bryan Trussel, Jeremy Mercer, and Steve Miller – who collectively saw a need for a new type of location-sharing service. Glympse allows GPS-enabled mobile phone users to share their location for a pre-set period of time with anyone they choose using patent-pending GlympseWatch(TM) technology. Designed to keep up with an increasingly mobile lifestyle, Glympse visually answers the question of "Where are you?" with a dynamic map that updates a sender’s whereabouts in real-time. Glympse was developed with consumer safety and privacy in mind, and the service provides users with complete control over WHO can view their location, WHEN and for HOW LONG. The company works with several industry groups, including ConnectSafely.org. Glympse(TM) and GlympseWatch(TM) are trademarks of Glympse Inc. For more information, visit www.glympse.com.

Other trademarks featured or referred to within this release are the property of their respective trademark holders. Their use does not imply any affiliation, sponsorship or endorsement of Glympse products or services.