Addappt 1.6 adds group messaging features, Android support
I started using Addappt in 2012 when I picked it as one of the best apps of the year, then in 2013 I called it a group messaging powerhouse. Addappt 1.6 is out today (free, App Store) and it continues its reign as "the update-to-date address book maintained by your friends."
Addappt is an address book replacement for iOS and Android that's keep updated by your friends. When one of your contacts uses Addappt and they change their phone number (or other contact information) your address book is automatically updated in real time in the background. In business your contacts are probably the single most important thing on your smartphone and Addappt is simply the best way to keep your contacts current.
Addappt 1.6 features better search (now by company, city, and job title), easier friend invitation, a better experience for new user signup, and an all new UI. The groups feature saw perhaps the biggest improvement, you can now create the following groups with a few taps:
Groups are one of Addappt's strongest features because they allow you to quickly contact everyone in your company, family, or all the CEO's that you know. You can even create a group of all your contacts that live in Seattle (for example) and quickly email them a note that you'll be in town next week. The family group function is excellent for sharing kids photos that you might not want to post publicly on social media sites.
Since Addappt gets better with scale, today's announcement that Addappt is available for Android (free, Google Play) is great news for users. Now both iPhone and Android users can keep their contacts up-to-date with zero effort.
Addappt is a capable replacement for the native address book apps on iOS and Android because it syncs bidirectionally and features quicker access to email, text and email from the list view or search results. Updated contact information is shown in a stark orange font that's hard to miss and new photos are shown with an animated label. The Android version, like its iOS counterpart, updates in the background and is available in English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese and now in Simplified Chinese – which is new.
I'm still bucking for a version for iPad (the app isn't Universal) and I'm told that iPad support is on the company's road map. I'd also love to see a way to set default apps on iOS, but Apple would need to implement this. When I asked Addappt co-founder Mrinal Desai about default apps coming to iOS 8, he was optimistic. Desai thinks that giving iOS users the ability to set their preferred default app for email, calendar, web browsing and especially contacts, was "aligned with Apple’s goal of helping developers and customers. It's just a question of the effort required to implement it versus the available resources."
I hope that user-definable deault apps comes to iOS 8 so that I can make Addappt my default app for contacts.
More information on Addappt can be found in the company's FAQ.
Update: Addappt's new #AidDoug commercial puts a funny spin on keeping your contacts up-to-date: