SameCell for Facebook® - User Guide


Welcome

Welcome to SameCell for Facebook®. SameCell is a free service that alerts you when friends or people you’d like to meet are nearby. SameCell is very simple to setup and use. Please read the How SameCell Works and Getting Started sections below to begin using SameCell.


1. How SameCell Works

SameCell does not share your location with other users. SameCell merely alerts you when your friends (or members of groups you join) are within your chosen proximity.

There are several options for using SameCell:
  1. You can run SameCell on your BlackBerry Smartphone.
  2. you can run SameCell within the Facebook environment from your desktop or Laptop computer.
  3. SameCell for Facebook users can also use standard cell phones to receive proximity alerts and manually update their location.
  4. SameCell also works with versions of Facebook for mobile devices such as the Apple iPhone or iPod Touch.
Regardless of which version of SameCell you use, there are three simple steps:
  1. Define who you want to share proximity with
  2. Choose how to be notified when a friend is nearby
  3. Choose a method(s) for updating your location


1.a. Proximity Sharing

Each SameCell user can choose who they wish to share proximity with by adding friends and groups to their SameCell sharing list. You can turn on or off proximity sharing for any person or group at any time. You can also set the method for alerts and select from 5 different range settings up to 30 miles (50 kilometres) for each friend or group.

When you add a friend to your sharing list, SameCell will automatically add your name to your friend’s sharing list. However, proximity sharing will not be enabled until your friend accepts your invite. If your friend is not a current SameCell user, an automated invite with setup instructions will be sent to your friend.

Groups are a powerful concept that can be used to meet new people with common interests or to setup proximity sharing for a group of friends all at once.

You can enable proximity sharing for any Facebook group that you are a member of simply by adding the group's name to your sharing list.

You can also create new SameCell-only groups that can be public or private. Membership in private groups such as “the Johnson Family” or “Your Company Name” can be password controlled.


1.b. Notifications (Proximity Alerts)

A notification, or alert, is triggered when a friend on your proximity sharing list or a member of a group on your list falls within the alert range that you have set for that friend or group.

An alert is a simple text message such as “John Smith is within 3 miles”. The alert can take the form of an email, a Facebook message or a text message sent to your cell phone. Depending on the format of the message, it may contain additional information such as the person’s email address to help you to make contact.

In addition to proximity alerts, the current proximity of all your friends is displayed on your SameCell friends page so that you can see at a glance who's nearby.


1.c. Location Updates

In order to perform the proximity matching function, the SameCell server must have some idea where you are, but it doesn’t necessarily require your exact location.

The server will attempt to make proximity matches based on the most recent and most accurate location information available.

This location information may be updated automatically and frequently if you are running SameCell on your Blackberry and you’re on the move. However, the updates will become infrequent when you are stationary. Devices with GPS capability turned on will provide the greatest level of accuracy whereas older devices without GPS will rely on cell tower-based positioning that is less accurate.

Similarly, Facebook users can choose to manually set their location as often as they wish and with various levels of accuracy.

Facebook users can pre-define real-world locations for Facebook status settings, such as:
Facebook users can also update their location on-the-fly by setting their status to any geo-codable text string such as a postal code or street address. For example, a Facebook status such as “90210” or “100 Shady Lane, Dallas, TX” will be interpreted as a location by the SameCell server.


2. Getting Started

To begin using SameCell for Facebook, you must first add the SameCell application to your Facebook account and then add friends or groups to your SameCell Sharing list.


2.a. Activating SameCell

To Add the SameCell application to your Facebook profile, go to the SameCell directory page (in Facebook) and click on the "Add Application" button. You will be presented with a confirmation page where you will need to click on the "Add SameCell" button, and then you're done. It's that simple! No software will be installed on your computer.

The first time you enter the SameCell application, you will be presented with an invite page that will allow you to select from your list of Facebook friends and automate the invite process. You can click on the "Skip" button if you're not ready to invite friends at this time. See information on inviting friends in section 2.d. below.

If you already have a Facebook account...
click here to go to the SameCell setup page

If you are not a current Facebook user...
Click here to open a Facebook account now


2.b. Navigating Within Facebook

The SameCell application is fully integrated into the Facebook User Interface, thus extending Facebook's native features without the need to leave the Facebook environment. The SameCell Application leverages facebook's native components including the Product Directory, About Page, Left Nav, Profile Box, Privacy Settings, Alerts and Requests.

The screen shot below shows the SameCell profile box that displays on each user's Facebook profile page. This box provides a summary level rollup with links directly into specific areas of the application.




Clicking on the "View All" link or the "12 Friends" link from the profile box (above) will launch the SameCell application into the Facebook window as shown in the screen shot below.




There are 4 primary pages within the SameCell application; Friends, Groups, Locations, and Options. You can toggle between these pages by clicking on the links on the right side of the application banner.





2.c. Setup Options

The SameCell application is pre-configured and ready to use immediately after setup, however there are several options that can be changed to customize the application to better fit your needs. Click on the "Options" link from the application banner to go to the Options page.




Authorize SMS for SameCell
Click on this link to authorize the SameCell application to send notification text messages to your cell phone.

Enable SameCell Proximity Sharing:
This checkbox can be used to turn proximity sharing on or off on an application wide basis. More information on turning sharing on/off can be found in section 2.f. below.

Distance Unit:
By default all ranges will be specified in Miles. You can toggle this setting between Miles and Kilometers using the radio button.

Preferred Method for Proximity Notifications:
When SameCell detects that someone on your friends list has come within a predefined proximity of you, it will attempt to notify you. SameCell can notify you by email or by Facebook notifications which can also include SMS text messages to your cell phone. This setting allows you to set a default method for notification. You can still override this default and choose a different notification method for each user or group on your friends or groups page.

Email Address Notifications:
If you chose to be notified by email when SameCell detects that a friend is within your proximity, you will need to specify the email address that SameCell should use to notify you.

BlackBerry Synchronization

A single SameCell user may choose to run the SameCell application on their BlackBerry smartphone and within Facebook. This provides a user with the best of both worlds; automatic location updates and proximity notifications when they're mobile and full integration with their Facebook environment when a PC is available.

SameCell provides a fully integrated environment whereby changes on either platform are synchronized with the other. The only requirement is that the two accounts must be connected via a common id before they can be synchronized. SameCell uses the email address that was used to activate your SameCell for BlackBerry account as the ID to connect your BlackBerry account to your Facebook account.

To connect your accounts together, simply type your BlackBerry email address in the field labelled "BlackBerry Email Address used with SameCell:" on the Options screen and activate the checkbox labelled "Synchronize the BlackBerry with this email address".
(Note: you will receive an email requiring a response to confirm that you are the owner of that email account.)


2.d. Inviting Friends

The next step after activating your SameCell account is to add friends and groups who you wish to share proximity with. Adding a friend is as simple as picking their name from your existing Facebook friends list. To protect each user’s privacy, Person‐to‐Person proximity sharing must be approved by both parties.

When you add/invite a new friend, their name will appear on your SameCell Friends Page with a yellow head icon next to their name. The icon indicates that the relationship is not activated yet, but no further action is required by you. SameCell will attempt to create a proximity sharing relationship with that friend by one of the following methods: 

If your friend is already a registered SameCell User
If your friend is not a SameCell User


2.e. Using Groups

Groups are used in SameCell to define common interests between yourself and other people that you may or may not already know. Groups are a very powerful concept in SameCell because they offer a free‐form method for defining matching criteria. You can use Facebook groups that you are a member of, or existing SameCell public or private groups, or a keyword or keyword phrase used to define a common interest between yourself and others. For example, “Stamp Collecting”, “Tennis” or “your company name”. Group names can define anything from a niche personal interest to membership in a large organization. You can even create password protected groups, such as “The Johnson Family”, if you wish to control a group’s membership.

When the SameCell matching engine runs, it simply looks for anyone who is within your range preference who matches any of your group/keyword names.

There are three Group types:
  1. Facebook Groups
    You can add any Facebook group (as long as you are a member of the group) to your SameCell groups list.
  2. SameCell Public Groups
    A public group such as “Stamp Collecting” can be used by anyone and may provide proximity alerts about friends you already know as well as people you don't yet know. Anyone can create a new SameCell group.
  3. SameCell Private Groups
    A user can set "Group Privacy" to "Private" thus designating a group as private. The user can then create a password and communicate the name of their group along with the password to a select group of users. (Note: You cannot use this option with Facebook groups)
Additional Options

You can optionally restrict proximity matching to a specific gender. For example, you might add a group called “Casual Dating” whereby you only want to be notified when a member of a specific gender is nearby.


2.f. Turn Sharing On/Off

SameCell Sharing can be controlled individually for each person or group and/or you can toggle sharing on or off for the entire SameCell system at any time.

Turn All Sharing On/Off

There are two places where you can toggle sharing on or off;
  1. On your Facebook profile page, there is a link inside the SameCell profile box labelled "Turn Sharing Off" (or "Turn Sharing On" depending on the current setting). Simply click on this link to toggle sharing on or off.

  2. On the SameCell Options page, there is a checkbox labelled "Enable SameCell Proximity Sharing". Simply check or uncheck this box to turn sharing on or off.
When SameCell is turned off (stealth mode), your location will be ignored by the proximity matching engine and no proximity matches can be made. When sharing is off, you will not be able to see the proximity of any of your friends. On/Off status is indicated by the green (On) and red (Off) icons on the top right corner of the SameCell application pages.

Note: When sharing has been left off for more than a day, you will get a friendly reminder email. If sharing has been turned off for an extended period of time, your SameCell account may be rendered inactive and removed from our servers.

Turn Sharing On/Off for a Person or Group

To manage sharing for a friend (or group), you have to go to the SameCell Friends (or Groups) page. To go to the SameCell Friends page, click on the SameCell icon on your Facebook left nav or click on the "View All" link in your SameCell profile box on your Facebook profile screen.

On the friends grid, there is a sharing indicator icon at the far left for each friend. The sharing icon will be green if sharing is currently enabled for this friend, red if sharing is disabled for this friend or grey if all sharing has been disabled. To toggle sharing On/Off for this friend, click on the edit link on the right side of the row and then check or uncheck the sharing checkbox. Click on the update link when you are done.

Note: To turn sharing On/Off for groups, please follow the above instructions from the SameCell Groups page.


3. Updating Your Location

The SameCell proximity matching engine must have some idea where you are before it can advise you of which friends are nearby. SameCell has implemented a number of technologies to provide automated and manual methods for updating a user's location. Automated updates require a small application to be installed on the phone which sends cell tower and/or GPS data to the server. Manual updates require a user to send their location to the server via Facebook status updates or SMS text.

Regardless of the update method used, SameCell does not post nor share anyone's actual location, not even with your friends. The SameCell Server uses location information to detect proximity matches between friends and group members who have a mutually accepted proximity sharing relationship.

Please read the two sections below which describe the automatic and manual update options.


3.a. Automatic Location Updates

Currently, automatic location updates are only available for users running the SameCell application on their BlackBerry. The application on the BlackBerry works on most BlackBerrys manufactured in the past 5 years for GSM and CDMA networks. GPS is not required, although it does provide greater accuracy for user's who have the GPS feature enabled.

The BlackBerry application will send periodic location updates to the SameCell server when the user is mobile. Once stationary, the SameCell application goes into sleep mode and does not send updates until the device's location changes. These updates are fully automated and no user action is required.


3.b. Manual Location Updates

SameCell uses the Facebook status field as a method for users to manually update their current location. The Facebook status field is a way to keep your friends up to date on what you're doing, thinking, or feeling at any given time. The status field can be updated through the Facebook web application as well as through the various other mobile Facebook versions such as Facebook for iPhone. The Facebook Mobile feature also supports status updates via SMS text from a cell phone. Additional information about the Facebook "status" feature can be found in the Facebook online help. Additional information about using BlackBerrys, iPhones and text phones with SameCell can be found in section 4. Mobility.

The screen shot below shows the location of the Status field to the right of the picture on the Facebook Profile page. The field allows you to type in free-form text or select a status that you have used before. (Alternatively, you can also click on "Update your status" from the "Home" page)




Updating your location using the Status field

SameCell's use of the Status field was designed to be as flexible as possible while preserving the intended use of this Facebook feature. Whenever you change your status, the SameCell application will attempt to determine your location.

There are several different ways to insert your location into the status field as follows:
  1. Type the address of your current location
    Example 1:   100 Madison Ave., New York, USA
    Example 2:   Bay and Front, Toronto, Canada
    Example 3:   90210, USA

  2. Use the @ character within your status description followed by the address of your current location
    Example 1:   I'm partying @ 100 Madison Ave., New York, USA
    Example 2:    setting up our booth at CES @ Las Vegas Convention Center, USA

  3. Type status descriptions as you normally would
    Example 1:   home
    Example 1:   work
    Example 2:   hanging out at Janes place

    Note: The SameCell "Locations" page enables you to create a list of common status phrases and to associate each one with an actual location. For example: You could create a record called "home" and pre-define it with your actual home address. See section 3.c. Setting up Common Locations for more information.

  4. Use your cell phone to text your new location to Facebook
    The Facebook Mobile feature gives Facebook users the ability to communicate with the Facebook application by sending SMS text messages to FBOOK or 32665. To update your Facebook status from your mobile phone, you must text "@" followed by your new status. More information on using this feature is contained in section 4.c. Using your Cell Phone.
Privacy Note: Your location will not be displayed anywhere within the SameCell application, however, if you use methods 1 or 2 above, other Facebook users might be able to see the location information contained within your status message if your Facebook privacy settings allow it.

Additional Notes about how this feature works


3.c. Setting up Common Locations

The most efficient way to update your location using Facebook's status feature is to pre-define the places you go to most often. For example, you could create common location records in SameCell for "home", "Cottage", "hanging out at Janes place", "my office", "partying downtown", etc. Then whenever your status changes to one of the pre-defined statuses, the location in SameCell is automatically updated. The screen shot below shows the SameCell screen used to create and edit common locations. This screen is accessible from the "Locations" page.




4. Mobility

All of the various SameCell applications were designed to coexist with one another so that friends can share proximity regardless of the SameCell application or device they are using.

It is also possible for a single user to use several different versions of the SameCell application to their advantage. For example, a SameCell for Facebook user may wish to install the SameCell application on their BlackBerry so that their location is always updated automatically.


4.a. Using your BlackBerry

SameCell for BlackBerry is a light application that installs on BlackBerry smartphones. The application can run entirely on it's own or as a companion to the SameCell for Facebook application. The SameCell for BlackBerry User Guide provides more comprehensive information about the BlackBerry application, whereas this guide refers only to it's use as a companion to the SameCell for Facebook application.

Sample screen shot of the SameCell for BlackBerry main screen.





4.b. Using your iPhone

SameCell leverages both the native Facebook application that was built for the iPhone and the full Facebook environment when run within the Safari browser on the iPhone. Both these versions work equally as well on the iPhone and iPod Touch (using the Touch's Wi-Fi connection).

Notes for using SameCell on Facebook for iPhone

4.c. Using your Cell Phone

The Facebook Mobile feature gives Facebook users the ability to communicate with the Facebook application by sending SMS text messages to FBOOK (or 32665). Click here to enable Facebook Mobile.

Once you have the Facebook mobile feature enabled, you will be able to update your Facebook status (and SameCell location) by sending SMS messages to FBOOK. To update your status, you must precede the message with the "@" character.

Facebook Mobile can also send SameCell proximity notifications to your cell phone, but you will need to authorize SameCell to send the messages. To authorize SameCell for proximity alerts, go to the SameCell Options page and click on the "Authorize SMS for SameCell" link in the top right corner. You will be presented with a confirmation page. Click on the "Authorize SameCell" button.


5. Additional Information

Additional information about SameCell and the SameCell application for other platforms can be found at: www.SameCell.com


5.a. Privacy

The SameCell Service provides a means for you to connect with people you already know or people you wish to know based on personal preferences and geographical proximity. The SameCell Service uses a variety of methods including cellular network technologies and GPS technologies to estimate your proximity to other people of interest to you. SameCell's technology was not designed to track your precise location or movements, however others may be notified that you are nearby if your SameCell preferences are set to allow such notifications. To protect your privacy and personal security, it is imperative that you have read and understand how the SameCell Service works and that you have read and agree to the SameCell Terms of Service.


5.b. Proximity Accuracy

By design, SameCell's technology will not allow one user to track another user, nor will it allow one user to even know another user's exact location. SameCell simply makes a connection between two friends when they fall within a pre-determined proximity of one another.

In the context of social networking, SameCell believes that a proximity-based approach provides a more appropriate degree of accuracy than location-based approaches. The fact that pinpoint accuracy isn't a requirement also allows SameCell to support a broad range of location technologies with respect to capturing a user's current location. Some of the location techniques used by SameCell include:
Each of the above techniques offer varying levels of accuracy and in some cases may also present an update lag, especially when a user is travelling at high speeds. Cell tower based technologies and postal codes, for example, present an accuracy that can be +- several miles, whereas GPS technologies and exact street addresses provide a high level of precision. The SameCell technology is designed to work with this hybrid data structure and to build relationships between locations so that accuracy will improve over time. In most cases proximity will be detected within each range to a fair degree of accuracy.


5.c. Usage Examples and Suggestions

Emails from SameCell

When the SameCell server finds a proximity match (i.e. Two people who have a friend or group keyword match and are within the defined range) it sends an automated email out to each user advising them of the match. These emails will appear in your inbox with “SameCell” as the sender. Wherever possible, SameCell attempts to provide useful information such as the matched friend’s name in the subject line. To ensure uninterrupted service from SameCell, you may need to add "SameCell.com" as an approved domain in your junk email filters.

At certain times you may find the proximity alerts to be overwhelming. For example, imagine if you had a group name such as “Harvard Class of 84” that you used to meet up with old school friends when you travel. If you happened to be attending a school reunion, you would likely be swarmed with redundant emails advising you of people who are nearby. The simple solution would be to toggle sharing off for that group during your time at the reunion.

A common user mistake is to respond to a proximity alert email when trying to contact your friend. Note that the email was actually sent from SameCell's servers, so responding to it will not reach your friend. The email address of the friend you wish to contact is actually contained in the body of the email. Simply click on the address link in the body of the email to email the friend who is nearby.


5.d. Getting Help

Error Messages

The error message below may appear from time to time when the SameCell or Facebook servers are under heavy load, or when the network connection is too slow to return the page in an acceptable time. Please click on the "Try Again" button several times if necessary, or restart the SameCell application.



Application Upgrades

SameCell will periodically upgrade the SameCell application with new features and/or bug fixes. Since the application resides on the server, no action will be required by you. If the feature changes are significant, you may be notified via email. Please reference this user guide for information relating to new versions of the application.

Technical Support

For technical support, please reference the SameCell discussion board that is accessible from the SameCell about page in Facebook. Alternatively, you may send an email to support@samecell.com. Please provide a detailed description of the problem you have experienced.

For additional information, please visit www.SameCell.com

We welcome all suggestions to improve the SameCell Service. Please send suggestions to: suggestions@samecell.com

©2006-2008 SameCell Inc. All Rights Reserved. The SameCell Logo is the exclusive property of SameCell Inc. All other brands and marks are the properties of their respective owners. There are no warranties, express or implied, with respect to the contents of this document, and all information provided herein is provided “as is”. In no event shall SameCell or its affiliates be liable to any party for any direct, indirect, special, or consequential damages in connection with your use of this document.