[lazy_afternoons]

I built exactly this in 2016. I realised that Bluetooth requirement from both parties is too much friction.

It worked way better with a QR code.

That way there is proof of presence and the recieving person need not have the app installed.

[Animats]

This kind of thing goes all the way back to "beaming" between Palm Pilots, in 1998.[1]

Apple added "knocking", which they called called NameDrop, a few years ago. You bang two phones together and the simultaneous acceleration tells them to talk over NFC. But apparently Apple has gradually been locking down that feature because it's used to help organize protests.[2] Can't have that.

[1] https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/palmpilot-the-ultimate/...

[2] https://www.msn.com/en-us/technology/software/apple-wants-to...

[fcpguru]

Well the idea is you are talking at event and one of you gets pulled in another direction there is no akward "hey wait I didn't get your..." you just move on and know you have that info already. The QR still requires that little action. Did you get the bluetooth working reliably in 2016? I don't mean for this to sound snarky but coding this in 2025 I kept thinking "omg without AI's help I never would have got this solid."

[sjw987]

How frequently does this case scenario realistically come up?

I attend a lot of events, and most of the time, I just quickly whip out my phone and scan the QR code (which is usually on a lanyard around their neck).

We can both acknowledge the action taking place (which I believe is important for spam prevention / security / politeness), follow up later, and it takes 1/2 seconds. With this, I would be walking around wondering if the connection was saved or not and checking my phone, which is about the same time cost as just scanning the QR code.

The business card exchange or QR code scan exchange, I think, is important to create a legitimate link. I hate it when I go to events and people scan my QR code from a distance to hit me with cold calls and spam later (usually flip it the other way while not interacting with potential clients), which is sort of how this idea sounds, but weighted towards the spammers side.

[fcpguru]

this is good feedback. I think there are others though that are on the side of too shy didn't make that connect and leave the event with 0. And it really matters the type of event business vs. dating. If you install the 222.place app and do their questionaire you'll see the direction I'm thinking of really asking "_who_ do you want to broadast _what_ information too."

[bruceb]

Seems different form of friction? Scanning QR shows likely there but not quite proof (can just send screenshot of QR).