November 6, 2025
Bluetooth mingle or QR single?
Auraphone: A simple app to collect people's info at events
New app auto-swaps contacts at events; comments scream 'QR codes!'
TLDR: Auraphone promises automatic contact swapping at events using phone-to-phone Bluetooth. Commenters loved the idea but roasted the friction and pushed for simple QR codes, with extra laughs over its App Store “Food & Drink” label—cool concept, but the crowd wants less setup and more scan-and-go.
Andrew, a former Bird scooter engineer, unveiled Auraphone—a phone app that auto-collects the names, pics, and socials of people you meet at events using Bluetooth Low Energy (a battery-friendly phone radio). He even wrote a BLE simulator to wrangle the chaos of multiple phones connecting in a crowded room. But the comments immediately stole the show.
Nostalgia met skepticism. One user deadpanned “Streetpass for phones,” while another argued the real problem is social friction, not radio tech—if everyone must run one app, keep the screen awake, and not touch the phone, that’s a party killer. A long-time networker summed it up: too much setup, too little payoff.
Then came the QR coup. A veteran claimed they built this in 2016 and QR codes worked better: proof you met in person, and the other person doesn’t need the app. Cue a chorus of “just scan it” takes, with Bluetooth seen as over-engineered for swapping an Instagram handle.
Comedy didn’t disappoint: someone spotted Auraphone listed under “Food & Drink” on the App Store, prompting jokes about “networking à la carte.” The crowd verdict? Cool tech demo, awkward real-world UX—and expect memes about rooms full of phones trying not to connect to themselves.
Key Points
- •Auraphone is a BLE-based app for exchanging contact information at in-person networking events.
- •Phones act as both BLE server and client to avoid connection role conflicts, ensuring they don’t connect to themselves.
- •Data is split into PROFILE_CHAR (JSON profile: device_id, first_name, photo_hash, instagram) and PHOTO_CHAR (image data), with caching via photo_hash.
- •Operational loop includes connect, retrieve data, disconnect, and cooldown; BLE constraints like GATT errors, buffers, and MTU cause delays across iOS and Android.
- •A Go-based BLE simulator (auraphone-blue) was built to model BLE via filesystem and domain sockets; it improved understanding but didn’t fix platform-specific bugs.