Evernote Hello requires users to swap phones and add their name into the other person's phone. Users are then prompted to hold the phone up so it can automatically take their picture and add it to their profile. Evernote Hello can then send each person an email containing the new information. It also creates a record of where they met, a picture of the location, a map and the address.
If you have trouble putting a name to a face – and you have an iPhone – help is now at hand.
"Your brain doesn't remember people alphabetically," says Phil Libin, Evernote's chief executive. "You remember them based on what they look like, when you met them and the context."
Mr. Libin says the new Evernote Hello app aims to transform and modernize the concept of the historic alphabet-based address book.
The aim of Evernote – first launched in 2008 and now used by about 20 million people worldwide to store text, audio and visual notes across multiple mobile devices and desktop machines – is to function as a "second brain" to give people a better memory
"Current technology for remembering people is very antiquated," Mr. Libin told Reuters in an interview at LeWeb, a conference in Paris where about 3,500 of the world's top digital experts and entrepreneurs from 60 countries meet each year to discuss the state of the tech industry.
Evernote Hello requires users to swap phones and add their name into the other person's phone. Users are then prompted to hold the phone up so it can automatically take their picture and add it to their profile.
Evernote Hello can then send each person an email containing the new information. It also creates a record of where they met, a picture of the location, a map and the address.
"The idea is that instead of an address book I get a really visual way of remembering everyone I've met," Mr. Libin said.
"It remembers everything that's happened around that encounter based on location, time and keywords and it pulls together all the information into a context."
Once added to Evernote Hello, people are displayed within a mosaic of faces.
When it is tapped, a face becomes a profile showing a history of all interactions the two people have shared. It also shows other people who have participated in the same meetings, location information and items related to meetings from the user's Evernote account such as notes and photos.
Another new app, Evernote Food, allows users to track and record social events surrounding meals using pictures, location and text. It can also be used to document favourite recipes and share them on Facebook, Twitter and email. Users can also write restaurant reviews or plan diets.
"Evernote Food helps you remember all your best meal experiences," Mr. Libin said. "We are trying to make beautiful experiences around the most important things to remember."
Both Evernote Hello and Evernote Food are available free for iPhone and iPod Touch.