I suppose it’s appropriate that drinks known for bringing people together, like beer, get to be the focus of their own social networking app. Despite the appropriateness, I’m still not sure how useful it is.
RedPint is another in a line of beer check-in apps that basically narrow-down the focus of a broad networking app like FourSquare, so all you have left to check-in is the type of beer you’re drinking. I’m not sure how valuable an idea this is. An app like FourSquare already allows you to check-in at any bar you’re at, so is it really worth opening up another to check-in with the beer you’re drinking?
If nothing else, RedPint has a very nice list of beers you’re able to check in. I tried searching for several smaller microbrews I’m familiar with in the Chicago area, like Three Floyds’ Alpha King, and RedPint, and the app passed with flying colors.
After checking the sort of beer you want to drink, you’re also able to tag the location where you’re drinking it. I had a much more difficult time finding locations without searching for their entire name. For instance, typing “Fox” returned no results but “Fox and Hound” returned more than a dozen.
Interestingly enough, the app dedicates an entire section to making sure they’ve listed all possible locations. The “Beer Places” tab on the app doesn’t actually list information on specific places, instead it just lists places the app would pick up in a search.
If you can’t find a place, a button lets you e-mail the developers and note that they’re missing a location that you drink at. It’s a cool feature, though I was disappointed that the Beer Places tab doesn’t actually tell you anything at all about places you could be drinking beer.
The rest of the app is par for the social networking course. You’re able to keep a friends list and there’s a medal system just like FourSquare’s badges. Oddly, there is no listing of what medals you can earn, which seems like a strange oversight.
Essentially, the question of RedPint’s worth depends on whether you feel the need to use another social networking site to check-in your drinking habits. While it does link your updates to Facebook and Twitter, it seems that RedPint could use an extra shot of something to make it a must-have app. I’m just not sure what.
