Throughout the years of writing and updating iNacho, I've received a plethora of feedback about the app and it's even been suggested that I write whole other apps involving other foods. The names iPizza and iHotwings were just two of the ones thrown out there.
One of the primary deterrents people had with using iNacho was that it required Facebook to login and submit reviews. Originally I did this for ease of use for both the developer (myself) and the users such that no extra time was needed to setup credentials on either side. However, besides the people who did not want to give iNacho access to their facebook and those that didn't even subscribe to the Facebook model, this also made it difficult to setup special privileges and rankings for users when I didn't even collect a unique username for public use.
I've also recognized that we're living in a very visual society and we have a great deal of access to cameras and photos. People are instagraming themselves and their foods consistantly and they don't have time to fill out a whole review of their food. Yet ratings are still important and we often use them to determine new venues to peruse as well as finding the best of any type of food.
So with all of this in mind, today I would like to introduce you to a brand new app:
- Instant Ratings. It's what Instarate stands for. Take a picture, give it a star rating, location, category, and you're done.
- Any food or drink. Not limiting ratings to just nachos or pizza or hot wings. Any food or drink can be rated.
- Ratings Feed. In addition to finding ratings near you, there is also a Global Feed that provides a bigger picture of ratings around the world at any given moment. Future enhancements will include a Near you Map view.
- Currently for iOS 7+ . There are plans in the works for an Android client in the future.
- No authentication required. Upon starting the app for the first time, you are generated a username that the app will use until such a time as you desire to claim it (rename it and make it your own).
- User Rankings. Everytime you rate something, your ranking gets updated. Future plans include badging, leaderboards, and "likes".
- Ad Free. No pesky banner ads bugging you.
- Featured Ratings. See your rating featured on the front page! Ratings will be picked for this on a certain time interval.
