Blinko

What Discover Nearby shows you, and what it does not

Nearby now answers one question: what is around me right this minute. How the radius and categories behave, where the results come from, and why it is not the same as your Follow tab.

schedule3 min read

Discover Nearby — Nearby now — looks around wherever you are standing. Choose a radius of 100, 250 or 500 metres and narrow to Food, Coffee, Shops or Fun. Tap a result to preview it, then Spot It to capture it, or Go for directions.

Results come from Google Places, not from Blinko. This is not a feed of businesses on Blinko and not a list of beacons — it is the world around you, so that capturing something you are standing in front of takes one tap instead of a search.

When a radius comes up empty, Blinko offers you the next one out rather than showing you nothing: 100 metres becomes 250, then 500. At the widest setting it will simply say there is nothing right now, which on a quiet street is the honest answer.

This is not your Follow tab. Follow is scoped to what you already follow — the businesses you have followed and the beacons you are following, nearest first. Discover Nearby is scoped to where you are. One is your world; the other is the street.

And nothing here interrupts you. There are no beacon notifications of any kind. Nearby and Follow are places you look when you want them, not things that tap you on the shoulder.

Never lose a moment

Capture it, plan it, remember it — free on iPhone, Android, and the web.