President Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney have both launched new mobile apps for their respective presidential campaigns that were both made available for download Tuesday morning.
Though the apps were released on the same day, they have very different functionality.
[More from Mashable: Next-Gen iPhone Dock Offers Robotic Motion, Exciting Platform Potential]
Obama for America
Obama's app, named "Obama for America," is a full-fledged political organizing tool that lives on a user's phone. The app delivers news about the Obama campaign, lets supporters locate and sign up for nearby campaign events (such as voter registration drives), allows users an easy way to donate to the campaign and includes a "Get Out the Vote" section featuring information about each state's voter registration policies and the location of nearby polling places.
[More from Mashable: Spotify for Android Gets Radio Streaming]
A great deal of social integration is also included in the app: Users can post to Facebook, tweet Obama-related news or invite friends to Obama events directly from the app. Baked-in Google Maps functionality also helps supporters find their way to campaign events.
As election day looms closer, the app can also be used to report problems at polling places, which the campaign said will be "especially helpful for people in states with new voter ID laws."
The most powerful feature of the Obama app is the "Canvass" section. Canvass has the potential to become a political field organizer's best friend: It loads a list of homes near a user, complete with information about the voters inside. Campaign staff and volunteers can use the app to walk door-to-door to recruit volunteers or get voters to the polls on Election Day. Every household's response can be loaded into the app and sent back to a database at Obama headquarters.
The app takes field organizing into the digital era for Obama supporters walking neighborhoods, so the days of reams of paperwork stuffed into folders and binders are gone.
"As we push through the last 100 days of this election, our focus remains on helping make grassroots organizing as easy and accessible as possible for the volunteers and supporters that are the heart and soul of this campaign," said Stephanie Cutter, Obama for America deputy campaign manager. "That's why we designed our new app to help break down the distinction between online and offline organizing, giving every supporter the same opportunities to get involved that they would find in a field office."
Mitt's VP
Romney's new app, on the other hand, has one purpose: Users who download it will be the first to know who Romney picks as his vice presidential running mate.
The Romney app, which is available on both iOS and Android, is called "Mitt's VP." Users can sign in with their Facebook or "MyMitt" accounts. The app asks users to activate push notifications. Once the campaign makes a VP choice, it'll blast the message to all users.
Like the Obama app, Mitt's VP also has social integration: Once users get the long-awaited news, they'll be able to share it immediately with their friends and followers.
"The first official way to learn the name of the Republican Vice Presidential candidate is by using our new 'Mitt's VP' app," said Romney Digital Director Zac Moffatt. "Users of the app will be the first to get the news on the biggest political decision of the year through an instantaneous alert on the one device most people carry around the clock -– their phone."
You can download the Obama for America app at the App Store, and the Mitt's VP app at the App Store and Google Play. An Android version of the Obama app should be available "in the coming days," according to the campaign.
What kind of mobile apps would you want from a political campaign? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, nhauscreative
This story originally published on Mashable here.
No comments:
Post a Comment