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Comment by jbob2000 | Hacker News Reader

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jbob2000·

So what's wrong with passing the phone around?

Now I have to ask everyone to pull out their phones.

"Mine is in my purse, let me go grab it" "I left mine in the car, oops" "My battery is dead"

Then I have to text/email them the link.

"I didn't get the link" "I have no service here"

Whereas, passing a phone literally takes a millisecond.

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I imagine it's to stop people from committing the social faux-pas whereby they're handed a phone, and they start swiping through pictures in the gallery (and possibly stumbling upon pictures the phone owner did not intend to be seen).

I agree. Whoever thought this was going to end up being less troublesome than passing a phone around (which is, admittedly, awkward) hasn't thought through the scenarios. There's no way a bunch of people at "dinner with friends" are all going to pull their phones out and start up a little photo-viewing LAN party.

A lot of people don't like passing a phone around because in many cases the recipient, either out of force of habit or just snooping around, will keep scrolling through the rest of their photos.

It leaves you in control of the "show". If you have a series of pictures, for example, you pick when to move to the next photo, and can narrate as you do. You don't have to think about them flipping beyond the photos you wanted to share. They don't have to figure out how to work your phone.

It's certainly easier to pass around a phone, of course, but I can see the flaws.

This is a place where NFC would really be a step up though. Tap-to-share-screen, instead of having to find contacts and numbers and sending texts.

I tried it out - the person you're sharing the Xim with can also control the slideshow.

Nice that all of your friends are always in the same room with you.

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