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When it comes to sharing your contact information, a couple of ways in which this is accomplished on BlackBerry 10 is by sending a contact vCard or using NFC to transfer information. However, if you are a few BlackBerry employees you decide to create your own peer-to-peer application that not only replaces the physical business card but makes this process absolutely seamless using NFC and QRCodes.

Regardless if this is for personal or work there are times you might need to share your information at a moment's notice. What sets this application apart is that it ensures your data goes directly into the other person's address book regardless of platform. Rather than downloading a vCard, it will inject the vCard into the native device address book. Once that is complete, the other person has the option to include additional data or leave alone.

Before I get ahead of myself, let me go over how easy this application is to setup and share. Upon launching the application, users are prompted to create a profile. Now this is important as there are times I assure you there are certain contact details you do not wish to share depending on the situation. For example, if I want to share my work business card I'm not going to create a profile with my Twitter handle or Facebook link. I am going to create a card that corresponds to my work details: Name, Title, email, address, business phone number, corporate website, and my LinkedIn page. If I wish to share with friends or family then I would include my Twitter, Facebook URL, and even my personal PIN. YOUnify allows up to five different profiles to be stored on the device so this way you have control over which information is shared whether it be for work, personal, or even family.

Once all of your profiles are stored, these digital business cards can be shared a few different ways. First is by NFC of which there are two options. There is the regular NFC method whereby you tap both devices together just as you normally would to transfer the vCard directly into your address book. The other option is with NFC Lite for when NFC file transfer is not supported by your device. This sends the cVard without setting up a Bluetooth transfer so that all data except the profile image is sent. When this is chosen, the contact details appear on the device and ask you to save to the address book rather than inserting automatically. For example, my Windows OS phone for work did not support NFC but I was able to transfer by tapping the NFC Lite button.

The other way to share is by having them scan the QR code on your screen, which comes in handy if the other person is on another platform without NFC. I tested with my Moto X and the results were instantaneous. Once the QR Code was shared, all I had to do was choose the contact list to send to and tap done.

For those concerned over security you can read their privacy policy.

The Good

  • Share contact profiles with any device that supports NFC & QRCodes
  • Share only the information you wish others to see by creating profiles
  • Easy to navigate and enter in your data
  • All profile data is transferred including profile image
  • Functions regardless if other person installed the app (is not required to receive contact details)

The Bad

  • Profile image does not transfer using QRCode or NFC Lite due to data size limitations
  • Not available on other platforms yet (Coming soon)
The bottomline

Usually when a feature already exists natively I don't always seek out a third-party application to duplicate functionality. In this case, however, I am making an exception. YOUnify is fast, effective and allows users to quickly share contact information with friends and co-workers over BBM, email, QRCode and NFC. Sharing contacts has never been so easy and I highly recommend this for exchanging contact details in only a few steps. YOUnify is $.99 to buy, has no ads to speak of, and supports all BlackBerry 10 handsets running OS 10.2.1.

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