Price: Free
Score:
LeaveOn: Written iPhone App Review

Reviewed by Philip Chan

Facebook, Myspace, Xanga, Google+-the list of online places to hang out with your friends goes on and on. One would think there may not be much room for innovation in this already crowded environment. Think again! LeaveOn is a new friends networking app for the iOS, from developer UnitStyle. Available for free through iTunes, it offers a unique take on the social network concept.

Features:
Ever carved your name (“Billy was here!”) or left a love note (“Sally + Freddy 4Ever!”) out in public? Maybe it was on a tree, spray painted on a wall, left on a poster board in class, or even thrown into the sea in a bottle. Imagine being able to share these messages and more with an online network of personal friends, all through an app, without defacing or vandalizing any property in the “real world.” That’s the basic concept behind LeaveOn. Simply download and register for free through the app to get started. Then, you can leave messages, referred to as “balloons” anywhere you travel in the world, from the grocery store to the Eifel Tower. These can be set as public or private, and will be visible to other users of LeaveOn at that location, forever (well, as long as the servers stay around for the app). Your friends will receive notifications about such messages and must visit the locaiton of the message to access it and read it on their mobile device. Messages are called “balloons” because the developers envisioned users picking and grabbing virtual balloons with messages on them, at various locations worldwide. As you can guess, the GPS feature in your device plays a major role in LeaveOn. Devices without such capability will not be able to use LeaveOn. I really liked the concept of leaving virtual messages, special, funny or otherwise interesting, at spots I visit across the world. I also liked the various privacy options and the ability to delete messages as needed, so that your virtual messages don’t exist forever (if you choose to do so). It would be amazing if the developers could integrate a virtual augmented reality feature, where users could actually view the balloons through their camera’s viewfinder as well-maybe in the future?

Appearance and Layout:

LeaveOn iPhone App Review

The developers for LeaveOn have clearly invested serious time into this app. The overall layout is superb, allowing for easy browsing from the get-go. The visuals in LeaveOn look sharp,adding a touch of professionalism to this social network app. Finally, the developers have also released a large amount of help and support resources for users to peruse. Be sure to check out the excellent trailer and short intro to LeaveOn, viewable on YouTube here. Also, don’t neglect visiting the nicely-designed support website for LeaveOn.

Value:
I really hate to see graffiti and other reminders of poor stewardship of the world. If only such scribbling and carvings were done virtually with LeaveOn instead! LeaveOn is a wonderful, fresh idea for a fun social network application on the iOS. I wouldn’t be surprised if it some got integrated into larger, existing social networks in the near future. It’s certainly one with some excllent potential and one I would highly recommend every iOS owner to check out today!

LeaveOn iPhone app requires iOS 5.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up publication of this review. The iPhone App Review rating: