CNN & TIME launch an app for the Democratic & Republican Conventions
A new app from CNN & TIME promises to be the go-to app during the upcoming political conventions. It includes stories direct from the floor of each convention and social media features, including an option to check in on foursquare — the perfect way to earn the Political Animal badges TIME is releasing for the events.
The Convention Floor Pass will feature up to 50 stories from both news organizations, plus a unique front page that shows the top five stories each day. For the first time, TIME will offer a unique cover image during each day of the conventions, accessible only in the app. Users can also access local information, maps and guides customized to Tampa and Charlotte (TIME has also created lists on foursquare for each city).
Convention-relevant tweets will be displayed inside the app — filtered by hashtags, of course — and users can post their own tweets from the convention floor.
Foursquare users can use the app to check in at spots around the convention without ever leaving the app. To entice check-ins, TIME is offering a custom Political Animal badge for each convention (these were announced back in March, making this the longest wait ever from badge announcement to release).
The app’s designers have even taken the concept of badges from foursquare and extended it to encourage convention-goers to meet one another. Each user specifies their home state and can then collect badges for different states by “bumping” their phones with people from other states.
Convention Floor Pass is obviously designed to help those who are actually at the conventions, but many of the features — the news feeds, check-ins and Twitter filters, especially — are useful even for people not traveling to Tampa or Charlotte.
The app is available for Android, iPhone and iPad. A mobile web version is also available, but it doesn’t include the social media functions.
