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.