“Meeting new people is okay, but swapping contacts sucks.” That is the purported problem Knock Knock is here to solve. Knock Knock is an app that was released on both Android and iOS earlier this year by a company called Humin Inc. Humin is the team behind, and the name of, their contextual contacts manager app on iOS. With Knock Knock, the company created an app that allows users to physically knock twice on their phone to share contact information from a variety of social applications with anyone nearby, as long as they also have the app and knock twice in reply. Within the settings of the app users can list and edit the information about themselves they are willing to share through Knock Knock. Today Humin has announced a 2.0 version upgrade that expands the features and usability of the app.
Knock Knock has always had the aim of bringing people together; this new 2.0 release now looks to expand upon how they go about doing that. A new group chatting integration focuses on nearby discovery. Humin is calling the feature “The Shazam for People.” Now when you open Knock Knock, you have the ability to look for friends who are in your vicinity. To add on to the discoverability and the social aspects within the Knock Knock ecosystem, users can also see nearby mutual friends. It is probably important to note again, that the user decides what information about themselves can be seen by the public.
Despite having the trio of influential celebrity backers: Sir Richard Branson, Will.I.Am, and Sophia Bust promoting, and even appearing in the app’s publicity video, Knock Knock has not yet won over the masses. As of this writing, the app sits on the Google Play Store with only 59 reviews…and under 5k downloads. To be fair, the target demographic Humin has its sights set on is obviously the teen and college crowd. At this point even after downloading the Knock Knock app, it cannot be accessed without registering with a “.edu” email address; all other emails used to register will result in being placed on a wait list. If you’re a student and interested in checking out the application, you can hit the play store button below to pick it up.