AmpMe Turns Nearby Mobile Devices Into Speakers

The process of developing the final product – which works by allowing the user to sync music through the SoundCloud streaming service – took about a year of trial-and-error testing. The Host controls the playlist, and is able to search for their favorite songs, artists and albums by connecting to the SoundCloud music service.

The best thing about AmpMe is that it’s free, so it won’t cost you anything to try it. The app isn’t plagued with ads, either, so it’s hard to see how it will make money in the short term. Sure, listening to music out of your iPhone’s speakers isn’t a great experience, but there’s (speaker) strength in numbers, and AmpMe is the quickest speaker replacement out there – and it’s a lot better than the old smartphone-in-a-cup trick too.

If you find yourself in a situation where you want to play some music, but you don’t have a large stereo or Bluetooth speaker, then AmpMe could be the solution you’re seeking.

Created by serial entrepreneur Martin-Luc Archambault, AmpMe’s secret sauce is how it syncs together all the devices in the room.

Music was never meant to be enjoyed by a bunch of friends crowding around a single, maxed out phone speaker …

Also, don’t worry, you will still get a phone call while using AmpMe, as the music will stop so you are able to answer and will start again when the call ends. One company, Geekin Radio, launched in August, with a similar synchronization technology, that allows users around the world to listen to the same music as friends on real time and chat back and forth as the music plays.

Once the Host hits ‘play, ‘ friends join by entering a unique four digit party code. If the host happens to be wearing an Apple Watch, they can use it to control the AmpMe playback.

It doesn’t create full surround sound, because there is no channel separation between each device. There’s no Bluetooth involved, and the devices don’t have to be on the same network – they all just have enough of a connection to stream the music. Archambault describes it more as “3D sound”.

‘Of course it’s not flawless yet – to be honest I am not sure anything can ever be, ‘ wrote Archambault in a recent blog.