Heyzap Launches Check-In App For Mobile Games

By On March 16, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Heyzap has launched a new check-in app for mobile games for Android phones, with an iPhone version planned for future release. Heyzap says that alpha testing of the new app has generated over 250,000 mobile check-ins in over 3000 games. The app is designed to drive social discovery of mobile content by letting users check-in to games they’re playing, which helps others discover new games. All of Heyzap’s 1.6 million users can now check into any Android games. Over 20 Android games have directly integrated Heyzap’s SDK.

Heyzap says its new app addresses the lack of viral channels and absence of existing communities on mobile platforms. While social discovery is already driving success for games on social networks, mobile gaming has no real equivalent. Heyzap’s app lets users create a profile, invite their friends into the community, and read a news feed containing check-ins and other activity from friends. The app also contains a tab where users can share comments and tips about games.

To help encourage users to try new games out and engage more deeply with what they play, Heyzap’s mobile app will offer badges that users can earn by taking game-related actions. The app can be used with both free and paid games and is deeply integrated with Android. Users can also push their check-ins and social notifications out to their Facebook and Twitter news feeds. Games supporting the developer version of Heyzap’s SDK include Bubble Buster, X Construction, Wheelz, Slot Machine, and Plumber. Heyzap says the developer SDK can be fully integrated in about 5 minutes.

San Francisco-based Heyzap closed a $3 million round of funding led by Union Square Ventures last year. It was founded in September 2008 by Jude Gomila and Immad Akhund. Heyzap’s main product is an embeddable social platform that lets social game developers distribute their titles and leverage social channels outside of Facebook. Heyzap’s platform supports virtual currency, microtransactions, and recently added support for games developed in HTML5.