Elixr is a social network that is focused on helping you find the best drinks in your locality. We’ve already previously written about the iPhone app in the past and it was recently updated to version 2.0 and now requires iOS 7. The app has been carefully crafted specially for the new version of iOS and you can tell that just by looking at the fonts, glyphs and animations used in the app.
Elixr prompts you to create an account on first launch, so that you can join their community. As a part of the Elixr community you will be able to share, rate and comment on amazing new drinks and places that you and other Elixr members try out. There are five main tabs in Elixr that let you navigate the app. The first and main tab is your Timeline. Like other social networks, Elixr displays your timeline to you as an endless scrollable view. In this view, you can see your own posts and updates from the people you’re following. Each post is displayed as an image with a toolbar at the bottom, which is blurred out beautifully over the image of the drink. The toolbar has buttons that let you like, share, favourite or comment on the post. There’s also a button that lets you add the current drink to your personal ‘to-do’ list, so that you can try it out yourself. I found this feature to be really useful.
There’s a ‘+’ tab at the bottom right that lets you share your own drink to the community. While doing so, you first add an image of your drink, edit it, then rate the drink and tag it to a location. Once you’ve setup your post you can share it on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram or even keep it private. A drink can be rated as A, B, C, D, F or none. These ratings can then used by other Elixr users who visit the same brewery/distillery/vineyard. Every time you add a rating to a drink, it counts towards the overall rating of the place you’re at. And if you add a new drink to a place, it automatically populates the drinks menu in Elixr for other members to see.
The Search tab contains a splendid collection of images of drinks that Elixr members are currently enjoying. Tapping on any of these images displays the image in its own view with a superb bounce animation. Through this view, you can view more details about the location, user and the drink. Right at the centre of the tab bar is a Location tab that lets you view bars closest to your current location. Unfortunately, this didn’t work very well for me in India, probably because there aren’t too many recommendations for places close to where I live. The loading animation used throughout the app is a fancy little glyph of a cocktail shaker that gives you the impression of a cocktail being created right within the app! It fits right in and only adds to Elixr’s stunning looks. There’s also a profile tab at the bottom that lets you edit your account and access Elixr support among other things.
I did face some lag while using the in-app search and while accessing my timeline. I hope that’s fixed in an update. Although the app already has a considerable number of users and tagged breweries/distilleries/vineyards, the app will be even more useful when it gains more traction worldwide. Elixr 2.0 is a beautiful update to an overall solid app and you can get it on the App Store for Free. Elixr is also available for Android.