Bump by Bump Technologies is great for those times when you shop at the local market, see a face you haven’t seen in years, and exclaim – after rejoicing in her arms – “Where do you live? What’s your number? We soooo need to get together!” Normally, such slapdash moments take the form of an unexpected bump into each other, often physical, a look of surprised confusion momentarily fleeting on both of your faces, and then a required allotment of at least 5 minutes to rummage around your pockets, realize you carry neither pen nor paper, and then type in each other’s name and number on your phones. A smile and a wave take place, the phone is thrown back into the dark recesses of your purse – undoubtedly, where that lost lipstick has huddled, unseen, for the past two months – and life goes on as it was. Phew!

Bump takes the time out of trading information by transposing the physical act of bumping into someone onto your iPhone. Rather than reenacting the scene above, Bump allows you to simply bump your iPhone against another iPhone, and voila, instant information exchange. And, don’t worry about scratches and dings either – really, you’re lightly bumping each other’s hands as you hold your respective phones. First, you choose your name from your own Contact List, so Bump knows who you are, what your personal information is. When bumping with another person, you may opt to share your entire contact card, or you may opt to share a select few, perhaps just your phone number and email, and no personal photo or home address. Unlike when Bluetooth first came out, with Bump no one can see or access your information until you physically bump phones. It is pretty sensitive, though, so just make sure you don’t have the app active when you don’t want to swap information. If you want, you can integrate Bump with Facebook so you can tell people who you’re bumping with – “God, really? You’re bumping with him?!” Not necessary, but a nice feature.

I can see how great this would be in social situations. Picture this: You, in stunning black, curve-hugging dress, enjoy a martini, one olive only, at some swanky but under-the-radar lounge with a few friends, when a conversation with the flushed, tall man to your left – yes, the charming one, not his insipidly bland and testosterone-riddled band of cohorts – strikes a harmonious chord with your literary divulgations (”Really? You like Donna Tartt?”). You swoon, he sweeps, you bump. Despite the unfortunate, but imagined, sexual proclivities of the word bump to the phonetically similar hump, and, no doubt, its present participle bumping, the phrase bumping iPhones is sure to enter mainstream jargon. Bumping will be like the precursor to the actual humping, if you will entertain such coy and textual naughtiness. Bump a friend, bump a coworker, bump a boss, or bump a stranger.

But, all humor and potential blind date rampages aside, the Bump app is an excellent networking tool, a good app for business people to use with full efficacy. It’s free, so there’s no hesitation in downloading. At work you could bump left and right, getting the contact information from all your colleagues (oh haha). But, don’t limit yourself to numbers and emails – you can attach files, whole word docs, and bump to send. If my mom wants some photos of my boyfriend and I, I could just bump them over to her, bypassing the sending to email ordeal. Easy as pie. It’s kind of scary, in a way, thinking information can be so carelessly bumped away. Or, imagine a rough day at work (you’re behind in those TPS Reports). You, with red face, storm over to Jim in accounting, and yell, slamming your phone into his: “HERE’S YOUR F***ING REPORT JIM.” Who needs a punching bag when you can bump phones?

Sorry. It’s too easy to find the humor in this app. Highly worth downloading though, if just for the sheer novelty of it.