Good Vibrations? Anonymous, Local, and Ephemeral Microblogging

There’s a new player in the flash mob market. Vibe is a Twitter-like app for the iPhone that lets you communicate with other Vibe users anonymously. There is no login, no sign-up, no registration: it’s strictly download and play. Moreover, you shape your “vibes” by the distance you’d like them to travel and the length of time you’d like them to live. If you “Whisper” your vibe travels no more than 50 metres from where you are, “Speak” and the radius is 500 metres, etc; and like the tapes on Mission Impossible, your vibes can self-destruct after 15 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, 14 or 30 days, as you choose.

Who in this time of personal branding and global communication would use this self-effacing tool? Well, protesters, for one group. According to The Register “Vibe is now the instant messaging app of choice for the protesters at Manhattan’s #OccupyWallStreet.” The “cops are kettling” message can go out to your pals within 500 metres and be gone 15 minutes later. I’m not sure I’d want to bet the bippy on the promise of absolute anonymity, but it does seem unlikely that the local blue will be able to get a fix on the traffic for the next little while at least.

As I discover, it’s easy as pie to use — as what good app is not nowadays. And it’s kind of interesting to eavesdrop on messages as they move further and further away from where I am. As well, as the Vibe site says, the app might have its uses as a back channel app for conferences or for any localized gathering.