Bump, the company behind a cloud-based iOS and Android app that enables smartphone users to transfer files between phones by literally bumping them together, has been acquired by Google.
When users bump their phones, the service works out which devices are making the transfer by calculating where the phones are and how hard they were bumped. This avoids the need for NFC, Bluetooth or other similar wireless technologies.
In a blog post, CEO and co-founder David Lieb said “Our mission at Bump has always been to build the simplest tools for sharing the information you care about with other people and devices. We strive to create experiences that feel like magic, enabled behind the scene with innovations in math, data processing, and algorithms. So we couldn’t be more thrilled to join Google, a company that shares our belief that the application of computing to difficult problems can fundamentally change the way that we interact with one another and the world.”
The Bump app and photo-sharing app Flock, also developed by the company, will continue to be available.