What is Socially?
Socially is a mobile phone application that lets you keep track of all the friends you are connected to on multiple social networks. You can use Socially to track recent activity of friends on different social networks. Socially also shows you up-to-date social information about the callers during an incoming call and as alerts on the phone desktop (home) screen, enabling you to have better conversations.
Why should I use Socially instead of directly using the mobile versions of social networks such as Facebook?
Socially is not a replacement for mobile versions of Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Socially lets you keep track of all the friends you are connected to on multiple social networks from one place.
A key benefit of using Socially is that you get an at-a-glance view of recent activity of your friend on different social networks just when your friend calls you, thus enabling you to have a better conversation. To fulfill our mission of enabling better conversations, Socially offers other useful features such as Desktop alerts of friends' activities, Syncing friend's profile photos with phone Contacts & Birthdays with phone Calendar, Showing Anonymous Caller’s Location, Blocking Unwanted Calls, etc. Click here for the complete list of features.
Will Socially work on my phone?
Socially currently supports these smartphones. If your handset is not in the list, please check back after a few days. Newer handsets and platforms are being added regularly.
What do I need to use Socially?
To use Socially, you must:
- Have a mobile phone that is compatible (refer list of supported handsets)
- Have downloaded and installed the Socially application from your web-enabled mobile handset
- Have a mobile service that has "data connection" enabled and allows access to Internet sites from your phone. If you're not sure, call your carrier and request "2G or 3G Data connection" on your account. Alternatively, you may have have Wi-Fi connectivity on your handset.
- Point your phone's connection settings to an Internet access point. If you are unsure, you can download the correct Internet access point from your carrier.
How much does it cost to use the application?
Socially is FREE to download and use. But you may incur data usage charges with your carrier depending on the subscription that you are on.
Can I use Socially while roaming?
Yes, you can use Socially while roaming outside your home network, provided you have data roaming on the visiting network.
Important: higher data usage charges may be applicable while you are roaming. Please check the feasibility and costs with your carrier. Alternatively, you may use Wi-Fi if your handset supports it.
I'm getting "Unable to connect to server" error while using Socially
Check that you have the right data plan and browser settings on your phone. If you've successfully downloaded content in recent past and are sure that you do have the right data plan and browser settings, check if you can access any other mobile sites. If you can’t access any mobile sites on your phone then you may be experiencing some congestion or downtime on your network. Try again after sometime. If you are able to browse other sites but not use Socially, please contact us at our Support Site or leave a tweet for us @sociallyapp.
Why do you ask for my Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare user name and password?
Before you can start using Socially, you are required to sign-in to your social network to allow access to the Socially application. This enables Socially to obtain connections and updates information which are then provided to you.
Note that Socially does not ask for your user name, password; you login directly to your social networking account to allow access to Socially.
How safe is my private Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn content with Socially?
We ensure complete security of your data in these ways:
- We never receive your user name & password.
- Your private data is transferred between the mobile phone and our servers and between our servers and the servers of different social networks in an encrypted form over HTTPS.
- Your private data is not stored at all on our servers except in encrypted form in temporary logs.
- We comply to the authentication, privacy and data storage guidelines for developers published by different social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, etc.
I keep getting an error while trying to sign-in to Facebook from the app. What's wrong?
Some users who are trying to access Facebook in Socially app for the first time have reported facing issues with sign-in and landing up on a Facebook.com page with an Error message.
This issue is due to frequent changes in Facebook APIs and some persistent issues with mobile APIs. We have reported the issue to Facebook developer support and hope to have it fixed soon.
In the interim, we have put in a workaround. Now, when you click on Sign-in to Facebook button in the app, you will be redirected to a page that shows a bit.ly URL. Note that this URL is case-sensitive and private for each user - i.e., you must not share it with anyone. You need to access this URL from a PC based browser (MS Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome or any other). You will be redirected to Facebook sign-in screen on the PC. Enter your Facebook login details and sign-in. Once done, you may come back to Socially app on the phone and click on Refresh button under the Sign-in to Facebook button. With this, you should be able to see your Facebook friends and feed in the app.
We understand the above process is a little cumbersome. We are continuously looking at the Facebook APIs to see if this can be avoided. Till then, hope you follow the above one-time process to get the Facebook features in Socially app including the unique Facebook Photos sync with Contacts feature. We ensure complete security of your data in these ways:
I never seem to be able to see near-by Places on Foursquare. What's wrong?
To be able to show near-by Places on Foursquare, Socially app needs to obtain your present location from the phone GPS. It is a known issue that GPS works poorly indoors. Although it is frustrating, at present there is no clean solution to this. We suggest you try again, preferably outdoors.
Also, to improve your chances of getting location from the phone, go to Positioning Methods settings on your phone and choose Network Based positioning in addition to GPS.
I do not want to get Alerts during the night. Can I turn them off?
Socially periodically fetches your friends' updates from different social networks and shows them in the form of Alerts on the phone desktop (home) screen. Socially tries to be innocuous by not beeping or vibrating when your phone is in Silent mode and during night hours (10 PM to 8 AM). If you choose, you can turn off the Alerts completely from the Settings options in the application menu.
Since Socially does background activity, will using it drain my phone's battery?
Socially periodically connects to different social networks and gets your latest friends' list and status messages. While this background activity consumes your battery power, Socially tries to be a good citizen by suspending background activity (a) during night hours (b) when the phone is running on lower than 20% battery capacity and (c) when you are roaming outside your home network. During our lab tests for typical usage, the impact on battery life has been found to be less than 5%. However, if you wish you can turn off the background activity completely by choosing the Auto Refresh -> Never option from the Settings menu.
Why does Socially prompt to block the caller after every call? It is really frustrating.
Socially helps you to have better conversations. This is done by (a) showing what your friends are up to before answering a call and (b) letting you avoid unwanted (un-social) calls. After you get a call from an unknown number, i.e., a number not stored in your phone book, Socially prompts and lets you block the caller. If you choose this option, future calls from the caller will not ring your phone. If you choose Cancel when prompted, then it must be a call from a friend after all and you will not be prompted again.
Why does Socially frequently prompt to check-in? It is really frustrating.
Socially constantly gets information about near-by places from location aware social networks like Foursquare and prompts you to check-in at them. Your personal information such as your location and movements are not stored on our system. If you wish to disable these prompts, you can turn them off from the application settings.
I have a problem/idea/suggestion/compliment! How do I contact you?
The best way to give us your ideas, feedback, praise, brickbats and to report bugs & problems is at our Support Center. You can also contact us on Twitter @sociallyapp