Want to get wrecked in Curry King with the John's Rowers? There’s an app for that. Actually. Hold on. There’s two apps for that. That's right - it's unprecedented , it's bizarre, it's quite frankly ridiculous - but it seems as though Cambridge has been blessed by not one but two apps about swaps.  Violet was lucky enough to be granted an early preview to both Swaps and Swap Trumps so we decided we'd take a cheeky roadtest to see them for ourselves.

Are either of them actually worth the download? Which is the better one? Violet has asked around and we’ve compiled a list of everything you guys want to know. The main points you came up with is the Ease of Use, Finding Other People to Swap With, Organising Swaps, Discounts and Aesthetic. To make things easier, we've labelled each picture with which app it's from. Let’s get started, my lovely Violet readers.

Swap Trumps

Swap Trumps is essentially Tinder - you want a group to swap with but don’t know anyone? Voila - just use the app to find other groups. Ibrahim Sheikh, its founder, came up with the concept after realising he had no-one outside of his college to swap with. Fair - I know three people outside my college and one of them is my supervisor. Basically, if you don’t know anyone because you didn’t go to Westminster or Sevenoaks, this app is for you. As Sheikh says “Finding friends beyond the walls of your college is daunting. Why hasn't someone tried to solve this before?”.  The name alludes to the game ‘Top Trumps’ which we all played as kids but sadly has been tainted by another, slightly more famous, Trump.

Swaps

Swaps is an app that allows you to literally organise a swap through its integrated booking system. Swaps was founded by Saif Jalali and Gregory Paterson (and is coded by Carlos Purves) - the two founders got the idea through being invited to a Swap that was organised through Google Docs (which is probably the most Cambridge thing I have ever read). Swaps allows you to book a venue, time and invite a group - it has partnered with venues such as Nanna Mexico and Revs so you can see view their availability on the calendar. The app also offers certain discounts in some venues. Jalali says “At Cambridge, we have so little time to actually breathe, that setting up social events can sometimes be stressful in itself. With Swaps, we want to make going out and having a good time with your friends even simpler.”.  Wow. Is that ‘Cambridge’ and ‘having a good time’ mentioned in the same breath? Optimistic, Jalali. Very optimistic.

Finding Swap Groups

So as stated - Swap Trumps is Tinder for Swaps. You create your group’s profile and swipe yes or no on other group’s profile. It's just as shallow as Tinder and just as addictive. I could spend all day reading everyone’s taglines (personal fave: Girton gals - we’re worth the trek). When you match with another group - perf, you can now contact them. However, you can’t message directly on the app - you get directed to the member's Facebook pages where you can message them directly.

Swap Trumps has three ratings - chat, blood alcohol level and rowdiness. Therefore, you can discriminate depending on the percentage given. There's a clear positive to this - if you want to swap with quiet, sober groups then a lower rating can be a positive.

However, we have to be realistic here and assume that the app will be used by rowdy drinking societies. Therefore everyone will want the highest percentage on each. Although the rating is an average, there’s potential for skewing if a swap ends on bad terms.  Case in point: on my first swap, there was a guy who tried to hook up with every girl and was rejected in an orderly manner because, to be frank, he looked like Boris Johnson. BJ then got very nasty and aggressive and started to insult us all. I shudder to think what he would have rated us just because no-one gave him the time of day. Like babes, you were wearing an Abercrombie and Fitch hoodie...what kind of girls do you think we are? We have reputations to uphold. Please.

Swaps: The app is about the organisation of swaps, so you'd already have to have done some preliminary organising and know who you want to swap with.

Ease of use

They’re both surprisingly easy to use. Swap Trumps is fun and pretty simple to understand. It doesn't take a genius to work out how to swipe. Only one person in the group needs to have the app for it to work- though it looks much better to have more people on your squadcard. You can also see all your matches on another page.

Swaps is, again, super easy to work - there are very clear steps to follow so its impossible to get lost. First there is venue, time, date, and then the invitations. On the app, you can see all the swaps you’ve been invited to and the ones you've created. There's also a page to see the exact details of the swap, including capacity of reservation and your swap 'table'.

Aesthetic

Aesthetic is super important to me because I’m very superficial and only like good looking things (though if you met any one of my exes, you’d probably disagree). Swap Trumps seems to be going with a green theme - a green which is essentially the same colour as the outside decor of Lotus Thai. Just when you thought you could escape.

Swaps definitely wins on the aesthetic point. The blue, almost ombre, interface is very sleek and modern. 

Organising Swaps

Swap Trumps: After matching with another group, the organisation of the swap is then completely up to you. You’d have to probably create a Facebook group and liaise with the other group to actually organise the Swap.

Now organisation is what Swaps is really about. The app is built to make swaps easier - instead of having to ring up Curry King for the thousandth time and be put on hold, you can now book through the app. There’s stages - first you pick a venue, a time then a co-host (via usernames/Facebook). It’s super easy and quick to do. What really makes Swaps stand out is the ability to message everyone in the group on the app, so you don’t need to add anyone on Facebook or create an FB group. It’s all contained within the app. Partnered venues include Nanna Mexico, Revs and Gardies. Sounds pretty lit - though what really intrigued me the most was the fact that Gardies is a swap venue. Since WHEN? Why did no one TELL me this? Get hyped for an exclusive Veggie swap. We can swap stories of PETA protests and I can tell everyone the wonderful story of how my dad accidentally served me a meat quiche thinking it was a cheese one (yes yes, it was six years ago but it takes time to recover from the trauma, you understand).

Facebook integration

Swap Trumps can only be used through being linked to Facebook.

For Swaps, there is the option of using your Facebook login or creating a username. More options are always better but since everyone is on Facebook anyway it doesn’t really make much difference.

Discounts

Again, Swap Trumps is about the matching of groups so there isn’t anything here.

Swaps offers:

Revolutions – free shot per person for groups 6 or more

Nanna Mex – Burrito and a cocktail for £7-10 

Mai Thai – discounts offered on a person by person basis at the request of the owner

Gardies - (certain percentage discount on specific days)

Violet Loves:

Swap Trumps: We love being able to customise our own “squad card”.

Swaps: The discounts given through the app. Free shot in Revs? Don't mind if I do.

You would be forgiven for thinking that having two swap apps on the market would mean that they were in direct competition with each other. Yet, after our investigation it’s pretty apparent that the apps do very different things each. Though, I would definitely recommend having a look at both their privacy policies to see what they do with your data.

Swap Trumps is the app to use if you don’t have many contacts in Cambridge so you can find random groups to swap with. Use this if you want to swap with new people. Plus the rating system is a great feature to pick and choose different groups depending on what you want. Like success, Swap Trumps is about what you know, not who you know. Just joking! We all know that success depends on who you know (speaking of which, anyone know anyone who works in publishing who could get me a job? ). But really - Swap Trumps is a great idea and is executed well.

Swaps is the ideal app to go to for the actual organisation of a swap - to pick a venue, the timings and get discounts. If you know who you want to swap with and want easy booking, definitely use this app. It's very easy to use and the discounts are definitely its selling point. I've already recommended it to my Drinking Society President and if my recommendation doesn't do it for you then...well, fair enough. I completely understand.

If anything, the two apps very much compliment each other. Maybe the founders need to meet up to organise a collaboration app? If only there were an easy way to organise meetups. If only