The apple watch looks like an amazing product. But of all the amazing things it can do, a neglected one captured my imagination: The "Digital Touch" Heartbeat that allows you to share your heartbeat with someone else.
"When you press two fingers on the screen, the built-in heart rate sensor records and sends your heartbeat. It’s a simple and intimate way to tell someone how you feel." —via apple.com
Yes, it is an intimate gesture. Mashable called it the new sexting —and they are probably right.
But aggregating heartbeats can be an interesting social gesture too. And subscribing to the aggregate heartbeat of a group can be an interesting new way of connecting with it.
You could participate and subscribe to your football team's fans aggregate heartbeat. Or your hometown's heartbeat. Or your broader family's heartbeat. Or your college's heartbeat...
What would this aggregate look like? I don't know. Finding interesting and intuitive ways to multiplex these signals so that the aggregate is a good indicator of things may be trivial or an open question —I don't have the required technical background, but I guess that anyone with a background on signal processing will have interesting things to say.
But I'm sure that this can be an amazing way to connect with others, either on a personal and intimate level or as a group. It totally makes sense for any social app, to support heartbeat sharing: For example, imagine if in addition to joining a Facebook group you could subscribe to their aggregate heartbeat or even participate with yours too.
I pretty sure that heartbeat sharing will be the new social gesture.
