I'm always fascinated by Bump. I don't know a single person (of the 100M downloads) that uses it. But those numbers they post make me wonder why.

I have installed Bump twice now, 1 year apart - on my iPhone, then on my Android. Both times it failed to bump files. I wonder if it has inherent issues.

That would account for "100 million downloads!" but not actual active users.

Just now it said "Network unavailable" while I was connected to WiFi. It found a network when I turned off WiFi, but still failed to Bump.

Uninstall.

They just passed 112M downloads [1] apparently, so they're still growing at a really rapid pace.

[1] https://twitter.com/bumptech/status/279002738925379585

But how many of those people are active users? I would bet very few.

I've had Bump for a few months, but don't use it much. Primarily because it's a pain to get it to actually connect to anything.

I could never get it to bump with my desktop (it's easier to just transfer the files through a network share).

Bump needs to be something like Card.io. i.e. it needs to be a feature you license for inclusion in whatever app you're building. It never really made sense to me as a standalone app.

> one of the most popular mobile apps of all time

I have literally never heard of the thing, let alone see somebody using it.

Seems to be a lot of users in Europe and Asia judging by the sites traffic.

I once built an app on their API for a hackday, and I had to film the demo because I could never get the devices to connect via a bump. It would happen like once every 5 tries.

Just installed it again to see the mobile to pc bump, and although the web app picked the device, my phone never got a confirmation. Considering I still have to download the pictures from their servers, Google+ instant upload does a pretty nice job in this department. Until NFC.

Of course, all of this is superseded by NFC. Bump is really only relevant on platforms without NFC. I'm looking at you, iOS.

Wouldn't the computer also need to support NFC? If so apps like this should remain relevant for a while to come yet.

Bump in its current iteration doesn't support using it with PCs. NFC could work in this context if the PC had NFC hardware on it. Upcoming laptops are supposed to have this, but I agree that it would be a rarity making it difficult to rely on. However there are various methods to sync with a PC. Have the PC display a QR code and use the smartphones camera to scan and connect. I believe Clik employs this, among other apps.

My point in pushing NFC over Bump is that it achieves all of what Bump is trying to without relying on an external service or data connection. It's beauty is its simplicity and relatively low friction to use it for impromptu data connections, especially with strangers and people you just met.

We've supported bumping photos to your PC for months now. Go check out http://bu.mp on your browser.

Except I can't seem to reach your site. I'm not sure why Chrome is complaining about it, Down For Everyone says you're up. Hrm...

Im curious, If I can steal the file from the person next to me at the starbucks, If I hit the space bar at the same time?

We get that question a lot. The answer is no. There is always a manual confirmation step. The user must agree on both his laptop and phone and check if the unique photo matches.

Edit. Auto correct typo

is the physical bumping part a gimmick or require physical mechanism?

Physical bumping is important. We use the sensor data on the devices bumping at the time of bump to determine if two devices match.