Zenly - A Social Mapping App

I was getting constant friend requests on Snapchat lately so finally thought to re-install it. I am a bit addicted to Bitmoji (a product of Snap Inc) so was trying to connect it through Snapchat and found Zenly. Experience with Snapchat and Bitmoji was good so Zenly got a chance to acquire some space in my cell.

Zenly creation credit goes to Antoine Martin and Alexis Bonillo. However, in late May 2017 Snapchat bought Zenly around $213.3M in cash, even rumors are that Zenly deal closed around $250M to $300M cash plus some % shares. So, what is unique about this app? curious....? Let's check inside-out.

MAP

Zenly has its own gamified map that shows the current location of the users you are connected with if they have enabled location access to an app or if the location has been disabled then it shows the last location of them (the secret is app won't let you in unless you give access to your location that you can change later from setting so your last location will be with Zenly ;))

Along with their location, you can see battery percentages of users you are connected with, whether they are standstill on a location or traveling somewhere at what speed in real-time, you can send them quick emojis (emojis includes SFX/VFX), you may select one of the users so that app will show you a detailed view of them, you can set home/work address and same will be visible to your network. Location sharing has 3 variants - a precise one, a blurred one, and a frozen one.

You can choose a map view as per your choice, gamified view from Zenly, Standard view that seems similar to Google Maps or maybe it is a Google Map, Satellite view, etc. The main attraction here is Lenses. Lenses allow you to have map insight for country-wise CoronaVirus stats, flights, temperature, rain & snow, plus ski slopes and traffic with zoom-in & zoom-out functionalities.

LEADERBOARD

A leaderboard is completely based on the locations you explore, the more you roam - the more points you earn and get a chance to rank on top. An interesting fact is, you can have roaming stats of each user connected with you so basically, you are competing with them to score more points. I noticed credit to Mapbox and OpenStreetMap that means the map has collab in some way.

MESSAGES

You can chat with connected users via text, emojis, and can share photos & videos. A detailed view of the user profile will give you an insight into mutual friends, pops they have unlocked, hangouts (the time you spent with them), location sharing preference, call, edit/delete/block them, etc.

NOTIFICATIONS

You will be getting a notification when your friend will be traveling or if your contact joins the platform. You may customize it from their user profile as mentioned above.

PROFILE

You can share your profile across multiple social media having your unique username same as Instagram. They have pre-structured animated cards that will be going as an invitation to join while sharing your profile, you pick a design as per your choice. The profile has features like a best friend whom you spent more time with, highlights, pops, views, change app icon, your profile photo, etc.

At the bottom, you will find a heart engraved with letters "Z+K" clicking it you will hear "I love you, I love you, I love love love love love you" <3

Apart from that, there are some tutorials, measurement preferences, privacy policy, licenses, disclaimer to protect your data is included. And that's it.

The app is fun to use but for safety do not connect unknown people and if you do, please make sure to customize the location sharing with them. However, you may add me @iKaushikBhatti on Zenly, I'd love to have a journey from a stranger to be a friend ;)

Be safe Be well & healthy. <3