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App merges social networking with reality

By Nadine Arendse
Johannesburg, 08 Mar 2012

App merges social networking with reality

With Wallit, a free new iOS app that launched this week, real-world places are finally getting the equivalent of Facebook walls of their own, Venture Beat reports.

The app lets users leave text, photos, video and audio messages on virtual walls for specific locations - but only if the user is actually there. The virtual walls are also viewable through a slick augmented reality mode, which lets users' Wallit contributions appear like digital graffiti layered on a location.

The app is essentially a virtual wall for physical locations, Mashable writes.

Here's how it works: You go somewhere, for example a stadium or the Golden Gate Bridge. You view the place through your smartphone camera screen, as if taking a photo. But with Wallit, a digital augmented reality-powered wall appears on the screen next to the landmark to show posts, photos, videos and other “marks” by people there at the same time or before you. Then you can add your own mark to the wall for others to see.

Essentially, it's like Foursquare but with the social aspect taken to a much larger degree, Slash Gear notes.

Foursquare lets users boast about where they are to friends who are somewhere else, while Wallit wants you to show where you are, to other people who are at the same place. The company says it has already created virtual walls in venues throughout New York City, San Francisco and Paris, and is continuing to build more. It has received more than $1 million in venture capital.

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