Contacts Nearby – Test Drive

In order to test drive this preview of Contacts Nearby you should follow the steps below.
 

1. Register at Facebook to create an account.
   If you already have a Facebook account you would like to use, go to Facebook and use this account to log in.
    
2. Associate your Facebook account with your InSTEDD account.
   Once you have your Facebook account set up log in to Facebook, go to your profile page and enter your profile link in "External Accounts". 
   
   Note: Your profile link appears in your browsers location bar, after clicking on the "Profile" menu item in Facebook.
   
   
    
3. Add the Contacts Nearby application to your Facebook account.
   Following the link above will give you the Contacts Nearby registration page. Add the Contacts nearby application by pressing the "Add Contacts Nearby" button at the bottom of this page.
   
   
   
   What follows is a page called "Welcome to Contacts Nearby". At this point the application is added to your Facebook account.
    
4. Set your preferences in the Edit Preferences page.
   On the welcome page, use the "Set your preferences" hyperlink to navigate to your preferences page.
   
   
   
   This page allows you to configure your visibility settings (who should be able to see your geographical location) and your nearby radius (what is the distance in which you consider a contact to be "nearby"). If you make changes, don't forget to click Save!
   
   
    
5. Submit your current location.
   On the top and next to the "Edit Preferences" link, click on the link "My Contacts Nearby". This page allows you to see which contacts are nearby and contains a map that visualizes the location of your contacts using the application.
   
   Enter your current street address in the text box above the map and click "Find". The application will now search for the geographical location you entered and show a preview of this location in the map. Confirm the location on the map by clicking on the "Submit your new location" button, which appeared.
   
   
   
   After submitting your location to the application, you should be able to see your location on the map, as well as a list of contacts within your "nearby"-area on the bottom of the page.
   
   
   
   Note: If you do not see your contacts in the map or the list below it, this might be because the system has not fully processed your location yet. This information might take up to 2 hours to process.

Interacting with the Contacts Nearby application over SMS

1. Register at Twitter to create an account.
   If you already have an account with Twitter you can skip this step.
    
2. Add your mobile phone as a device to your Twitter account.
   Within the Phone & IM preferences page in Twitter, add your mobile phone as a device.
   
   
   
   Twitter will now ask you to send a text message back in order to verify the phone number is correct. Once this verification is completed, Twitter will provide you with a phone number you can send "updates" to. Take note of this number, you will need it to send commands to Contacts Nearby.
    
3. Associate your Twitter account name with your InSTEDD profile
   Once you have your Twitter account set up, go to your profile page and enter your account name  in "External Accounts" if you haven't done so already.
   
   
    
4. Opt-in for Twitter notifications in the Contacts Nearby application.
   Navigate to the "Edit Preferences" page in the Contacts Nearby application and enter your Twitter account name in the bottom-most text box. Press the "Save" button to update your preferences.
   
   
   
   Click on the "follow fnb" hyperlink that appears after saving, and - if prompted - log in to Twitter.
   
   
   
   Click the update button in Twitter to complete the process.
    
5. Send a location update to twitter over SMS.
   On your mobile phone, send the following message to the number provider by Twitter "d fnb at Vientiane, Laos". This message will update your current location to Vientiane in Laos.
   
   Shortly should receive a message back from Twitter that confirms your location update:
   
   
   
   Your location request has been received and updated in the Contacts Nearby application.

Sending messages to Twitter

Messages sent through Twitter use the following format "d fnb <command>".
"d" Stands for "direct message", "fnb" is the automated user (a.k.a. "bot") setup to process messages on behalf of the Contacts Nearby application. The message sent to the automated user should start with a command, a list of these commands can be retrieved in response to "d fnb help".

For a list of all commands that can be used to interact with the application over SMS, please refer to Contact Nearby's documentation.