GUP is an Android app that connects you with groups of other people depending on your location as well as your interests. Derived from the Hindi phrase “gup shup” which means “chit chat”, GUP aims to connect you with groups of people all over the world that have similar interests in you. Designed as a way to connect local people with other local people, or get people talking on common ground, GUP is a throwback to how we used to connect on the Internet, and brings focus to the myriad of conversations we have all over the web. It’s a free app, and can be a nice way of connecting with new people, so let’s take a closer look, shall we?
As with other messaging apps, you just need to download GUP from the Play Store to get started. Signing up for an account is free and easy to do. All you have to do is provide some info on your interests, as well as a location and of course a username.
Finding a location is as easy as searching for one.
You’ll be asked to sign up to a number of groups with common interests of yours, which is a great way to get things started.
When you’ve got everything set up, you can go ahead and explore some of the groups in more detail, like this good food group.
Here, you can like or respond to the postings as well as share the posts or save them for later. It’s a pretty straightforward way of managing content, and one that works really quite well overall. You can also easily create your own groups with GUP.
You can also search for groups depending on their content as well, so there’s always something out there for everyone.
GUP is an app that has a pretty interesting concept at the heart of it, but the app itself needs some work. I had a few performance issues here and there and at times it feels like there are a few holes in functionality missing here and there. This is something that reminds me an awful lot of what the Internet was like back in the 90s and early 2000s, which is not a bad thing. GUP’s group-based chat around common topics and locations remind me of chatrooms from back in the day, where people were only judged on what they had to say there and then, not what they had put online before they met. Being able to talk to people in the same area as you is something that we’ve lost these days, and to be able to do it as easily and conveniently as GUP allows is a great thing. There’s no misconceptions or anything here either, as there is with Facebook and it’s much easier to connect on common ground than it is with Twitter.
Ratings
- Speed (3.5/5) – I had a few issues here and there when it came to performance, but they weren’t deal breakers.
- Features (4/5) – This is perhaps not a new concept, forums and chatrooms have been offering this up for years, but the way that GUP does it makes things feel fresh and easy to use. Plus, it borrows features from networks like Facebook and such with likes and comments.
- Theme (4/5) – I liked the font choice used here, and on the whole it was a quality-looking application.
- Overall (4/5) – GUP might be just one more messaging app to some users, but for those that wish to communicate on a more focused, more local level, then GUP is the app that they’ve been looking for. It’s easy with GUP to communicate on common ground and learn a little more about your surroundings in the process.
Pros
- Easy to setup and get started, there are no hoops to jump through and inviting friends is easy to do on your terms.
- Offers a way for people to communicate around common interests as well as at a local level.
- There’s a one-on-one chat available here as well, allowing you o make new friends and discuss things in greater detail when using the app.
- Allows users to share images and detailed stories in posts, rather than simple snippets like Twitter and Facebook.
Cons
- Application could do with some refinement and performance upgrades here and there.
- Integration with Facebook and Twitter would help GUP reach a new audience.
Overall, GUP is an app that I’m sure many will learn to love over time when using it. It has a lot of features on offer, and to be able to communicate with people at a more local level once again is pretty much invaluable. I stopped using Facebook a long time ago because things got too messy, and GUP is something I’d recommend to friends and family to keep things focused, and I think I’ll start making groups for my local areas and interests.