Now Tapped to close

Local tap listing app Now Tapped will discontinue its service as a result of Untappd denying access to their data.

Short version

• Now Tapped relies on access to the Untappd database of beers. Untappd have removed access to this data without notice. They have not responded to any support requests.
• Since Thursday the 28th October, venues have not been unable to update their tap lists. Only a small number venues that have Untappd for Business that automatically updates Now Tapped will continue to work.
• Based on these events, I have made the decision to discontinue the Now Tapped service.

Long version

Now Tapped launched during Good Beer Week 2014. It was born out of my combined love for software engineering and craft beer. It was also an experiment to see if I could actually develop my first “app”. After talking with a few of my favourite local venues here in Melbourne, it didn’t take long for the app to take off. At that time there were very few options in the market for online tap lists.

What also led to the initial success of Now Tapped was the ability to leverage the public Untappd API, which allowed venues to quickly search through millions of beers that had rich data including beer labels, ABV, IBU, customer ratings, detailed descriptions and more. By making it so quick and easy to create detailed tap lists, thanks to this API, the number of venues using Now Tapped continued to grow. Currently we are just shy of 1000 venues across Australia that have signed up since launch.

In 2016, Untappd launched their own paid tap listing service called Untappd for Business. This now meant that Now Tapped became a direct competitor as a free alternative to their paid service, while also benefiting from Untappd’s very own public API. That brings us to now, as it seems Untappd have finally decided to “pull the plug” on Now Tapped after 7.5 years of operation.

As of Thursday 28th October, Untappd blocked access to their API. This was done without any notice. I have been making every effort to reach out to them for an explanation or a resolution, but have yet to get any response.

This means venues are currently unable to update their tap lists. Only a small number venues that have Untappd for Business that automatically updates Now Tapped will continue to work, as this uses the venues own API access.

While I could continue to try and fight the good fight, based on these events I have decided to discontinue the Now Tapped service. As I’m sure is their intention, I’d encourage users and venues to switch to Untappd as an alternative.

• The Now Tapped apps will no longer receive any updates. The apps have been removed from the App stores. It it recommended that you uninstall the app if you currently have it installed.
• At the appropriate time, no later than 1st January 2022 the Now Tapped servers will be turned off.

Lastly I’d just like to thank all the awesome venues and users for supporting the App over the last 7.5 years. I know that this decision may disappoint many of you, but I thank you all for your understanding.

Cheers & Beers,

Angus Bremner (Founder and Developer of Now Tapped)

Edit: Big thank you to The Crafty Pint for kindly writing up this article regarding the closure.