When we first saw Brewster, we said it was destined to change the way we interacted with our iPhone contacts.
Brewster is a personalized address book that understands your social networking relationships and merges everything into a beautifully designed app. The goal is to make it easier to manage your contacts. And to that end, the app delivers.
Click here to jump straight to screenshots of the new features >
Brewster is back with a huge update that not only optimizes for the iPhone 5's larger screen but also brings some cool new features. Now when you press and hold a contact, you can easily rearrange the people in your life like you would rearrange apps on your phone's home screen.
Our favorite feature is the ability to mass email or text a group of your friends.
We got a chance to speak with Brewster's CEO and founder, Steve Greenwood, about how the changes to the app bring it closer to Brewster's goals.
The following is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation with Steve.
Business Insider: What has changed with Brewster's new update?
Steve Greenwood: There are a bunch of things that have been changed. We've implemented a top-to-bottom improvement in the user experience. Users can now take more action with the app.
First, favorites. A great way to interpret the new favorites section of Brewster is to think of it as a modern-day speed dial. You can select your favorite people who you contact the most often and have them easily accessible.
Integrated into favorites is now quick access, which means you can set the form of communication (email, text, etc.) you use the most with a particular contact and have that at your reach.
Speed optimization is another thing we focused on. The app is now laser-fast.
The app's suggestions algorithm has been reworked to provide users with three to five times more accuracy than before.
BI: What are your favorite new features?
SG: I think the search is amazing, because it feels like a magic trick to me.
The update allows users to search for more than just names. If you're headed to a city, you can see exactly who you know in a particular area, or what is going in a town.You can search for places also, like comedy clubs.
BI: What's next for Brewster?
SG: What you can expect from us to to continue to help users learn more about their relationships, and that is sort of the spirit with where we're going.
Brewster is something that is a labor of love for me. I am really passionate about what we're doing. It's really a lot of fun. Next things will also come from what people are sharing with us. We're trying to help people connect further with people they know.
Brewster is free and available for the iPhone.
If you're new to Brewster, the first thing you'll be asked to do is select favorites. It's easy, just tap the friends or colleagues you contact the most.
Here is the new favorites section in action. Users can select up to 12 favorites and have easy access to call, email, or text them.
Greenwood told us that the updates tab has now started to incorporate whenever you meet someone new. They will show up in this section. We also don't remember Brewster telling us when our friends birthdays were either.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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