There’s about seven months to go until we hit October. Which is a great month for a little thing called Oktoberfest. We’ve started practicing and should be good to go hard when the festivities roll around. One way we keep track of all the beer we consume is a social network called Untappd. It’s a great place to connect with your fellow beer aficionados. We’ve looked at the official app before, but now we’re looking at a third-party app for Windows 8. We can nearly guarantee you’ll be downloading Hoppd when we finish this post. Let’s check it out.
We’ll give you a quick recap of Untappd (www.untappd.com) if you don’t remember the particulars. Untappd is a social network for the world of beer. Think of it as Foursquare, but specifically for beer. You can rate beers, share what beer you’re drinking, ‘toast’ your friends drinks and more.
The official app on Windows Phone is a PhoneGap port. Which means it’s serviceable, but could be better. We actually had better for a few hours when Tapped came to Windows Phone. It was a third-party app that was native and worthy of Windows Phone. Sadly the team behind Untappd revoked the token due to a few API issues. Everyone lost there, especially fans of Untappd on Windows Phone. But now we’re getting a very nice Windows 8 app to help us get over the loss of Tapped.
Head into the Windows Store and you’ll find an app called Hoppd. We’ll be the first to admit that the reception of the design will probably be split in the community. But we’ll go on record and say we really like it. At first glance it might come across as cluttered. Spend some time with it and you’ll realize it’s just a more efficient spin on the metro design language (I’ll call it the metro design language till the day I die).
In terms of functionality, Hoppd does everything you’d want in an Untappd client, though we are missing a few little features that you get in the official app. For example, you won’t find support for image uploading when you check in with a beer. Other than, we like it a lot.
Download Hoppd, launch Hoppd and sign in with your Untappd account to get the party start. You’ll be greeted with the default view where you can at a quick glance see you what your friends are up to, what’s happening with the local beer community around you and a map of all the action.
To the left you’ll find where you search for and learn about beers. It’s also where you check in with what beer you’re drinking. And like Untappd, that section of the app is a great place to discover great beers to drink. To the far right of that main page you’ll see news from Untappd, recent badges earned on the social network and any Untappd notifications.
Performance is solid and everything works as advertised. Again, the biggest drawback would be the inability to upload a photo when you rate and share what brew you’re drinking. Small quibble to a great, unofficial Untappd app.
Hoppd is a free app for Windows 8.1 with plenty of Windows 8.1 features. Look forward to a large Live tile and support for multiple window sizes. All of this for free in an app with no ads.
Now's the chance to give a shout out to your local brewery. What beers should we try the next time we're in your neck of the woods?
Download Hoppd from the Windows Store for all the Windows 8 machines in your life.
