Clingle Receives 200,000 Downloads in First 2 Months

Since it was launched two months ago, Clingle, the location-based social network, has received about 200,000 downloads across U.S, UK, India, Singapore, Sydney, and Melbourne.

I have given the app a try and found that there are many ways to use it. Some people might just check-in and collect badges, like you would with Foursquare, while others might use it as a messenger, like Whatsapp. But Clingle finds its sweet spot when it is use as a location-based communicator.

It still feels very Foursquare-ish, especially with the big check-in button right in the middle of the bottom bar. This creates an unfortunate “Foursquare perception” that I feel Clingle is finding hard to shake off. Here’s their response when I asked about the challenges they have faced so far:

There were some comparisons initially between Clingle and Foursqure (or Gowalla) but as our users started exploring the app they easily understood the fact that Clingle is entirely different from the other services in this space. Clingle is about experiencing the real world with your friends in newer and better ways.

All the features of the app resonate with this philosophy, which include interactive sharing of your check-in moments through photo, audio, or video, to having “You and Friends here” option in venues which lets users to go back in time to what experiences they have had at a venue.

True enough, there are many social communicating features. But personally I still find the app confusing. I can’t figure how it would better improve my life. At first glance it seems to function like Foursquare. And then the team tells me that ‘clings’ (or messaging in text, audio, pictures, or video) is the real core benefit. Messaging on Clingle is fun, especially when you tagged a message with a location. But then again, if I want to message my friends quickly I would rather pick Whatsapp, or just SMS or tweet my friends.

My gut feeling is that there’s something not right with Clingle. Sure, it has great design and user experience. But I strongly feel that the app should cut down the number of features and only include those that really matters. Perhaps replacing check-in with clings would be a good first step. Perhaps other users may feel differently, but those are my two cents. Nonetheless I encourage you to give it a try here and decide for yourself.