New Location-Based App Finds Nearby Social Media Posts

The noise on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter makes it challenging to find out about what’s going on locally in your own community, but a new free app, Roamz, has a way of quieting that chatter by linking social media through its location-based service.

“We are basically curating social content,” says Jonathan Barouch, CEO and founder of the app that calls itself the “social goggles for the real world.”

Launched in October Roamz is intended to be “local, social, relevant, and real-time.” A Roamz user would have been able to learn that on Feb. 28 posted on Facebook that it was offering a one-day only Leap Year discount on wedding bands and anniversary bands made by Vardy’s. And viewing the Google map that’s paired with the posts it would show that just around the corner had a Leap Year Day special running, too, and a few days later announced that it is now serving a BBC Panini—bacon, Brie and chocolate.

Those are posts that may have been buried under the string of posts and tweets that pile one on top of another in seconds on Facebook and Twitter. Unless one was specifically looking for posts by Vardy’s and Bitter+Sweet, those pieces of information could go unnoticed.

The Australian based startup has been most popular in places such as Honolulu, Asia and Europe, Barouch said, but more and more users in the U.S. are finding and downloading it.

Roamz is useful for travelers—real or armchair travelers. By changing the location on the app posts from people in that location will show up. For example, Barouch said that if you were headed to Paris and wanted to find relevant and real-time information or photos of the Eiffel Tower, just type in Eiffel Tower in the location and up pops photos of it shared on Facebook by people you’ve probably never met such as Ko-chan and Siljan Gryphon, both of whom had recent photos posted on Facebook.

Barouch found his app useful when trying to keep his 3-year-old entertained one day. He went to the app to see what was going on nearby and bingo, a kite festival was underway.

Roamz was recently named iPhone App of the Week in Australia in the App Store, and was also featured in the New & Noteworthy section in both the US and Canada.