Did you know that the high five was invented in 1977? Mindblowing! Who would have thought that this critical form of communication was so new? 

On Highlight, the high five made its debut a bit more recently, back in November, as a lightweight way to say hi and wish people a good day.

Since then we’ve had fun adding secret high fives (when you tap and hold the high five button), and custom high fives for a handful of users:

With our latest release we’ve added a new collection of secret high fives that show up only for certain people, or when you’re in certain locations. Here are a few you might find:

By company:

• The Lyft team can send and receive Lyft fist bumps
• Facebook employees can poke each other, and Googlers can google each other
• Path employees can send and receive beautifully designed high fives

By relationship:

• If someone is your significant other, you can give them a romantic high five or an air kiss from the next room
• Friends can tag each other, accidentally fist bump a high five, or just for fun, punch each other in the face

By location:

• In the Mission or Williamsburg you can give ironic high fives
• In Hawaii you can give a shaka, just like Rick Kane

Special connections:

• If someone has your name, you can give a same name high five
• Governors can give each other a Clinton thumb
• Arsenio Hall fans can (obviously) give each other a fist pump
  
• People who like Musical Theatre can give each other Jazz hands!
• Stanford alums can give each other a Go Stanford! while Cal alums can give each other a Beat Stanford!

Create your own

If you’d like to have your own custom high five that only you can do, let us know here and we will do our best to create it for you!

To access the secret high fives, you need to have the latest version of Highlight (for iOS or Android), then just tap and hold the high five button whenever you see it.

Woohoo!

So apparently Marina Girl Says is now on Highlight. That’s kind of fun.

In an effort to welcome her to the service, we decided to change her high five button to a “slap,” since that seemed more appropriate:

If you are ever in San Francisco, keep an eye out for her as you are walking around! We hear she looks like Cameron Diaz and she’s really good at getting free drinks.

Welcome to Highlight, MGS.  :)

If you’re reading this post, you probably know that the Highlight logo is a controversial piece of design. Many designers praise it and debate its merits on Quora, while others protest its existence through comments on blog posts, subtle URLs and tool tips, and nuanced opinion pieces. It’s like visual cilantro: You either love it or it feels like soap in your eyes.

In an effort to keep the brand fresh, we’ve been hard at work on a visual redesign of the logo that we are thrilled to share with you today:

While we hope our work speaks for itself, we wanted to share a few of the changes you might notice:

Reduced color intensity. The hard edges in the old logo were a bit much on the eyes, so we softened them up and reduced the intensity of the colors to give it a more agreeable, Lisa Frank effect.

Better location iconography. Apps that use location should always have location icons in them. The old Highlight logo has none. Now we have three. Try forgetting that it’s location based now!

Animation. From a subtle pull-to-refresh icon to the playful bounce of a “like” button when you tap on it, animations are a powerful way to make your app more fun and delightful. In that spirit, the Highlight logo now rotates in circles at all times. You can almost feel the light breeze on your cheek as it rotates past you.

Audio feedback. Audio is a uniquely powerful branding element. Anyone who has hummed “Buh-duh-duh-duh-DUH. I’m lovin’ it!” while biting into a Fish McBite can tell you this. Now whenever you view the Highlight logo you will hear the word “highlight” repeated in a whispering tone to remind you that you’re viewing it.

A cat. Studies have shown that users in our target demographic love cats. Juxtaposing the logo with cat imagery not only associates the product with something friendly and tactile, it also gives the logo a sense that it’s small, to help users better understand that they can take Highlight with them in their pocket.

Finally, to give the logo a more polished, modern look, we’ve tried to make it as skeuomorphic as possible by adding an extra shine. We briefly considered giving the logo a mahogany wood or stitched briefcase texture, but ultimately we decided we wanted the brand to feel more “fun” than “refined.”

We hope you like the new look as much as we do. As always, please let us know if you have any feedback! You can reach us anytime at hello@highlight.

Two weeks ago we launched our biggest update ever - Highlight 1.5. Since then people have been using photos to communicate with the people around them in all sorts of fascinating ways and have been starting events for things we never expected. It’s been really fun to witness.

Today we’re announcing even more enhancements to the product, available today for iOS (and very soon on Android):

• Photo filters. Give your photos more personality with our initial collection of filters: Manta, Sun-ray, Dewdrop, B&W, and Cowboy.

• Post photos from your camera roll. Until now you had to take and share photos at the same time. With 1.5.2 you can share photos that you took earlier or with another app.

• Save photos to your camera roll. Now your own photos will get automatically saved to your camera roll so you can have a copy on your phone and share however you like.

• Save and share other people’s photos. See a picture of yourself? Like another person’s photo? Just tap the arrow in the header to save it to your camera roll or share it to Facebook and Twitter.

• New map view showing people and events nearby. With photos and events, there’s a lot of rich new content in the feed so we wanted to make it even easier to view people and events nearby in a simple, visual way. The all new map view is accessible anytime from the top right of the feed. Tap any person to see where they are on the map, or tap any dot on the map to see who it is. You can also do the same for events nearby and get a quick view of what your friends are up to.

• Search. You can now search for your friends in the “Friends” tab and navigate directly to their profiles.

We’ve also cleaned up the design and fixed some bugs, including a Facebook login issue that a few of you were experiencing. We hope you’re finding Highlight getting richer and more useful with each release. We’d love to hear any feedback you have for us.

That’s it for now. Hope to see you in Austin!

We launched Highlight just over a year ago with a big goal - to help you see new things about the people around you and sense things about people nearby. Over time, the product has become more interactive, but in many way ambient social networking still lacks the richness of social networking on the web.

Today we are excited to announce Highlight 1.5 for iOS and Android - our biggest update ever, with two new features that represent a huge evolution of the product. Here is what you can expect to find:

Photos nearby

Instead of just posting text, you can now post photos of the people and things around you. If other Highlight users are standing near you, the photos you post will show up on their phones. You can write captions, tag your location and friends, and share them out to Facebook and Twitter.

It’s a new and exciting feeling to stand in a roomful of people and watch their photos show up on your phone as they are being taken. Oftentimes you’ll look at your Highlight feed and see a picture of yourself show up, taken by your friend behind you. Or you can have a visual conversation with your friend in the next building and others around you can chime in. It’s a fun, ambient way to share and feel more connected with people around you. We think you’re really going to like it.

Events nearby

You can post photos anytime with Highlight but it really shines when you are taking photos with others - at parties, conferences, dinner parties, or when hanging out with friends. We decided to build a simple way to capture events so you have your own place in Highlight to share just with the people in the room. Our goal was to keep it very lightweight - without any guest lists, RSVPs, or advance planning involved.

Here’s how it works: When you’re composing a post on Highlight, just tap the map marker to see events nearby or to start a new one here and now. There is no one to invite; the people standing near you will automatically get notified that there is a new event nearby, and they can choose to join it. When new people arrive, they’ll get notified too. You don’t even need to select an end time; it will end automatically when people leave and stop posting. It’s sort of like a hashtag that’s location and context-aware, so you can see who’s at the event with you, chat with them, and get everyone’s photos in a single, clean place.

With photos and events, Highlight is more fun and useful than it’s ever been. We’re really excited to hear what you think. We’ll be at SXSW in a few weeks, so if you’re there, please come find us and say hi! Your feedback is incredibly helpful to us as we work to make Highlight the best network in the world for connecting and sharing with the people around you.

Thanks for using Highlight!

Man, it has been a busy fall! We’ve grown our team, moved into a new space, built a lot of new infrastructure, and finished a major product update that we’re excited to share with you today. Here are some of the new things you’ll find:

ANDROID

We’re thrilled to introduce Highlight for Android - available now for free in the Google Play store! We’ve worked hard to make it fast with a native Android feel, and you can expect to see a lot of new updates in the coming months. Please let us know what you think! If you use Highlight for iOS, you can now highlight your Android friends too.

Highlight for Android:

BIG UPDATE TO THE iPHONE APP

Today we’re releasing Highlight 1.3 - a huge update to the iOS app with a lot of new ways to share and interact with others. Notable features include:

High fives!

   Oftentimes when you see a friend nearby you just want to say a quick
   hello and acknowledge them. Now you can “high five” people directly
   from the activity feed and it will send a high five sound to their
   phone.

Secret feature: Tap and hold the high five button to send an ”awkward high five,” a chest bump, or a “head nod of acknowledgement.” You can also high five people from the profile for liking the same things as you. Up high!

It’s fun to see how you’re connected to the people around you, but oftentimes there is more that you’d like to share. Starting today, you can. The new profile includes:

• Header maps. Now when you click on someone’s profile, you can pull down to immediately see an animation of your last encounter with them
• Expanded summaries. In addition to your employer and neighborhood, you can now share your hometown, school, and relationship status with people, if you choose to.
• Things about me. You can now share interesting facts and stories about yourself with the people who walk past you. If your friends have written notes about you, they will show up here too, and other people can like and comment on them.
• My favorite things. You can now share a visual list of your favorite things with others, complete with pictures. You can use this to recommend things to the people around you (like apps, bands, or new restaurant discoveries) or just share what you love. By focusing on the things you really care about, this also makes your notifications more meaningful.
• Let me know if. Looking for a designer? A tennis partner? Babysitter recommendations? Share requests with the people around you and collect responses as you go about your day.
• Linked accounts. You can now connect your Twitter and Foursquare profiles to Highlight. Highlight is not an aggregation service, but this will allow you to click through to other people’s profiles and see additional context when it’s available
• Horizontal scrolling. Many parts of the profile now feature horizontal scrolling so it’s easier to view more content. Just swipe or tap the edges to advance to the next story.
• Links, clickable phone numbers, and copy/paste. Now working in both messages and posts!

          

Richer activity feed 

• Horizontal scrolling. Flip through people’s profiles directly from the feed so there’s more content for you to view.
• Fewer taps. Message friends and high five people directly from the feed.
• Easier to scan. Quickly spot your friends in your feed. Just look for the blue message buttons.
• New story types. Look for things like “suggested people to highlight” and friends at nearby events.
• Enhanced maps.  When you view the map of someone nearby, look for the little blue circles showing other people around you.

Design update
The entire app has been given a design refresh, with new buttons, backgrounds, navigation controls, animations, a new icon, and a cleaner overall aesthetic.

BETTER NOTIFICATIONS

Finally, the notification service has been significantly upgraded. With this release we’ll be sending out fewer encounter notifications, focusing on only the most interesting ones. We’re also using custom sounds, silent notifications, and new badging conventions to make sure it’s a great experience for you.

You can find the Android app on Google Play and the iOS update in the App Store now.

Thanks for using Highlight!

Today we’re thrilled to announce the release of Highlight 1.2, available now in the App Store. It’s our biggest update ever, filled with all sorts of enhancements and new ways to share with the people around you.

Here are some of the bigger things you’ll see:

“Post nearby.” Highlight now lets you post thoughts or questions to the people around you. When you post a status update, the people standing near you will get notified and they’ll see your message at the top of their activity feeds. If they like, they can publicly reply to it. It’s kind of like group messaging with the people around you.

We think this will be a really fun way to communicate and share on Highlight. You might use it to ask if anyone around you has an iPhone charger, or if anyone wants to share a cab home from an event you’re attending. Try it out and let us know what you think!

To post an update, just tap the blue quotes icon at the top right of the activity feed:
 

“Notes.” You can now write public “Notes” about your friends that will show up on their Highlight profile. This helps the people around them learn more about them. Notes can be used to vouch for your friends, to share stories, or to tell people interesting facts about them. They are super fun.

More activity. The activity feed has been redesigned to incorporate more types of content - including posts from people nearby, notes about the people you’ve crossed paths with, and new people that your friends have highlighted.

Liking and Replying. You can now like and reply to people’s posts and notes directly from the feed, making it easier to engage with others in a lightweight way.

Interest pages. It’s now easier to find other people on Highlight who share a school, hometown, or favorite author with you. Just tap on an item in the “things in common” section of a profile you’re viewing and it will take you to a dedicated interest page.

Improved relevance. You can now highlight the interests that are most meaningful to you, just like you would highlight a person you care about. This makes the app smarter and helps us know when to notify you.

Design refresh. We’ve done a general design refresh, making the app cleaner, with more subtle visual treatments and a more polished overall look.

Better Facebook integration. If you want, you can now share your highlights, posts, notes, and encounter summaries directly to Facebook. Sharing is entirely under your control and you can change your settings anytime.

New notification settings. For power users, the settings now contain more granular controls, allowing you to fine-tune which types of notifications you’d like to receive.

Highlight 1.1 just went live in the App Store.  It’s our biggest update since we launched and we’re really excited to show it to you.  Here are some of the more notable improvements:

Nearby now

Highlight now tells you which people in your timeline are still nearby.  For these people, the timestamp above the map will say “now”.  This makes it easier to know when friends might still be around to meet up, or to find people who are in the room with you.

Search

The upper right of the feed now has a search box, so you can quickly find anyone from your history. Also, you can search for anyone nearby by name, even if they’re not currently showing up in your feed.  This will help you when you are talking to someone in a crowded room and want to pull up their profile.

Redesigned navigation

A new left-hand navigation panel gives you quick access to things like your profile, your blurb, and your settings.  It also provides a quick way to pause Highlight, which stops location services from being used until the next time you open the app.  This is a good way to save battery life in an environment like SXSW.

Nearby now, search, and left-hand navigation:

Highlighting

Next to the “Message” button on the profile you’ll now see a new button: “Highlight”.  Highlighting is a lightweight way to mark people who seem interesting, or who look like they’ve done cool things.

Highlighting is public, so you can look at other people’s profiles and see who they have highlighted.

The people you have highlighted (and the people who have highlighted you) are saved to folders in the new left-hand navigation panel, so you can pull up their profiles anytime.  Highlighting will also help the system know what type of people you think are interesting so it can better tune your notifications.

Highlight people who seem interesting:

Friend and follow

At the end of each profile you can now find links to the person’s Facebook and Twitter profiles.  This provides a quick way to friend or follow people you’ve enjoyed meeting.  You can add your Twitter handle to your own profile in the settings.

We’ve also made a lot of smaller improvements and have continued to improve things like notification relevance and battery life.

We tried hard to build the new features in a way that didn’t complicate the interface.  Please let us know what you think!  You can get the update here.

For those of you who will be at SXSW, we will be there all week and can’t wait to hang out.  We also have some fun stuff planned to make your time in Austin better.  Stay tuned for more details!

Phew. Things have been moving fast since we launched Highlight a month ago. It’s been so exciting to see the app in the wild and to hear about your experiences with it. People are getting notified when friends are around the corner, using it to remember people’s names, and seeing random hidden connections wherever they go. We used to imagine these things when we first started building the app, and now they are actually happening. It’s really exciting.

We’ve been hard at work this past month and today we’re happy to share a few announcements with you:

Funding.  Now that we have the paperwork in order, we can officially say that we’ve closed a round of funding.  Benchmark Capital led the investment, with participation from SV Angel, Crunchfund, and a great group of angel investors. They have all been incredibly helpful and we’re really excited to have them be a part of things as we work towards the big vision we have.

Worldwide launch.  Until now Highlight has only been available in the U.S., but starting today it is available worldwide in the App Store. With Highlight in more countries, we think there is very real potential to change how we travel and to create meaningful connections across borders. Imagine being in a cafe in Iceland and discovering that the person next to you knows your sister, or backpacking in Thailand and seeing friends of friends all around you. We can’t wait to hear the stories that come in.

SXSW!  We’re also in the process of getting a new version of Highlight ready in time for SXSW.  We want Highlight to make Austin even more fun for you - by surprising you with hidden connections, surfacing information about the people you meet, and helping you remember these people when you bump into them at a random New York coffee shop a year later.  You can expect to see some useful enhancements to search and discovery, new ways to interact with people, and continued improvements to performance and battery life.

We’ll be on the ground in Austin from March 8-14th and would love to meet as many of you as possible.  Look for lots of neon colors and the Highlight street team around the show. We have some fun things planned for everyone, so please make sure you install the latest updates to find out about them.

Stay tuned for more details in the coming week!