App to Help You Find a WiFi Cafe

By Abhishek Agarwal on February 20, 2015 10 Comments / 1622 views

I used to go mad trying to find a cafe with WiFi to work out of, or do meetings in, across areas and when traveling etc.

Our team at Bold Kiln, having had enough of my ranting, went ahead and made an app to help me with this. Saw a discussion around a similar pain point between Asha and Prateek earlier, so thought this might help everyone here.

The app is here. Do share it, and send all feedback / thoughts to abhishek@boldkiln.com or just comment below!

Best,
Abhishek

You can also reach us on twitter. I am @abhishekaggy or @BoldKiln

Comments

Abhishek Agarwal

10 Comments

asha chaudhry February 20, 2015, 6:54 am

abhishek… welcome to trhs!!

i just love how sanal added you to the fb discussion and we now discover your wonderful app!! i just love how a rodinhooder simply sees a pain point and solves it!

pls share your link on prateek’s discussion thread. it will help everyone who goes through that post as well!!
Abhishek Agarwal February 20, 2015, 7:26 am

Thank you, Asha!

And yes, will add it on Prateek’s discussion thread as well.
Amit Sarda February 20, 2015, 8:53 am

Abhishek – I got a few questions for you.

1. Do you have only password-free WIFI spots listed on the app?

2. If no, do you also share the password for those WIFI spots?

3. If yes, isn’t there a chance of misusing this app for free WIFI?

4. Do the WIFI hotspot providers know of them being listed on this app?

5. How is it different from WiFi Map Pro?

6. Lastly, is it a not for profit app?

Would love to see more about what this app does! (I am sorry, I don’t use an Android phone)
asha chaudhry February 20, 2015, 8:55 am

hey abhishek,

do check out qlicket and tell me if you want to connect with vivek! sharing your link with him 🙂

https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/the-new-qlicket-com
Abhishek Agarwal February 20, 2015, 9:14 am

Hi Amit,

Pertinent points.

1. No. This is cafes that clim to provide wifi – free or otherwise, implying some of them would indeed have passwords / paid scratch cards etc.

2. No.

3. This is the reason for 2.

4. Not proactively no, but this data is collected from sources online where they are listed as providing wifi, and through crowdsourcing where people can add a cafe that provides wifi. Idea isn’t to steal the wifi a cafe has, but to add to the list cafes that provide wifi (willingly, happily, and such).

5. We have some thoughts on where we want to take this in coming times, and Wifi Map Pro isn in a different direction (potentially). Apart from that, it isn’t quite as India focused, even for now.

6. Not looking to make it a paid app for consumers, from where we stand right now. Obviously, things can evolve going forward.

Do try and test it out on a friends phone, and share your feedback with us. 🙂
Abhishek Agarwal February 20, 2015, 9:20 am

I’ll check it out and let you know, Asha. Seems interesting prima facie, want to think through the potential synergies once. 🙂
Vivek Kumar February 20, 2015, 11:16 am

hey thanks so much asha!

hey abhishek

nice to meet you. this is really cool. it’s great that you’ve mapped all these WiFi hotspots … just this week we launched something similar called bringindiaonline.org. right now it only has hotspots powered by Qlicket, but we may put other hotspots on there if we can figure out a way to ensure reliability of other hotspots. perhaps you can ensure these Qlicket hotspots are added in your app too!? happy to discuss in further detail if of interest
Abhishek Agarwal February 20, 2015, 3:08 pm

Thanks, Vivek.

Will check it out. Can you share your email id / drop me a test email at abhishek@boldkiln.com?
Will get back to you with our thoughts after mulling over it for a bit.

Best,
A.
asha chaudhry May 19, 2015, 1:43 pm

hey abhi,

wassup? long time…. how’s wifi cafe doing??
Abhishek Agarwal May 19, 2015, 5:08 pm

Hi Asha!

It’s going well. We’re working on the v2 of the app as well as bringing it to iOS. 🙂