Love beer? Join the beta for Tapped, an Untappd client crafted for Windows Phone

Sometimes official isn’t always better in the app world. Remember the first Foursquare app on Windows Phone back in the day? It was pretty bad, which is why Jeff Wilcox created 4^th & Mayor, a Foursquare app that many consider to be one of the best apps of its kind. Well, the same situation is shaping up with Untappd, the social beer network that put an official app in the Store back in April. Like the idea behind Untappd, but can’t really get on board with their mediocre app? Join the beta for Tapped.

The current Untappd app in the Windows Phone Store comes to us from PhoneGap. Remember PhoneGap? It’s the service that lets you easily target and build apps for multiple platforms (like iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry) by using web-technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It’s a fine service if you want to get your app on as many platforms as possible, but you’re missing out on features available to native apps. In fact, look at the current Untappd app on Windows Phone and you’ll notice it looks and behaves just like the Android and iOS versions. We deserve better.

Enter Tapped.

Developer Chris Millar was fed up with the official app from Untappd and decided to make his own. He figured Windows Phone users deserved an app that catered to the platform is was being used on. That’s an idea we can always get behind.

But he’s just one man and needs your help. Chris is taking submissions to join the beta, which he hopes to have ready by next weekend. Together, you and Chris can shape an Untappd app for Windows Phone users. So go join the beta and give him feedback on the app. Find bugs, offer tips, and more.

Interested in joining? Go sign up.

Here is what he hopes to accomplish with Tapped for Windows Phone.

Current features:

• View friend feed
• View global pub feed
• Search for beer / brewery
• Post checkin with comments and rating
• View friend checkins
• Toast checkins
• Comment on checkins
• Not too much ugly stick
• Native Metro / No PhoneGap
• Unread Notification Count

Planned for Beta

• Profile / Detail Notification View
• Brewery View
• Local Pub View
• Post to social networks

Planned for Launch

• Post photo with checkin 
• Better method to quickly toast / comment
• More fleshed out look and feel.
• Settings

If you’re a designer, developer or user feel free to join the beta and help craft an app you’d want to use. We’re always excited to help back projects that help push Windows Phone forward. Now go join that beta and we’ll hopefully get a better look at it next week.

Source: Tapped Beta