Storie: Holiday Edition for iPhone and iPad

There are plenty of iOS photography apps that aspire to be your new default camera, and many also seek to be a new hub for social photo sharing. Apps like Instagram and Path have become runaway hits, giving Facebook a run for our social attention. Now we have Shnap’s free Storie, which offers a new twist on iPhone photo sharing.

When you create a new project, you can shoot new pictures right from the app, but you can also import photos from Facebook, your camera roll, or even my favorite—Instagram.

You can also edit your photos a bit, adding some cool old-school filters and even a tilt-shift effect. Sharing is deeply integrated into the app, and it really lets you go wherever you like, such as, Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr. Or you can grab the code and embed it in your own website or blog. It’s easy to use and the results look great. You also have the option of keeping your work “unlisted” so only you or those with a specific link can see it—a valuable privacy feature.

A section called My Stories shows all the photo stories you’re working on, and from here you can edit and add elements to your story as it grows or changes. A Watching section lets you keep track of stories from other people that you may be interested in following, and keeps you updated on the latest additions.

The Explorer section really shows where this app stands out in comparison to other photo-sharing resources. Here you can see all the stories that different people have created: They're searchable, almost like trends in Twitter.

You can search stories by keyword or via search terms, and the difference lies in what you can find. Sure, you can search for Thanksgiving or Halloween, and get pictures of families having turkey dinner or getting dressed up to go trick-or-treating, which is fine. But where this section really takes off is that when you search for something like turkey recipes, you can get step-by-step instructions on how to cook a turkey that someone has posted as a story, including pictures, instructions, and tips. It's really cool and can come in handy.

The latest version of Storie is called Holiday Edition, for which Shnap has added some subtle snowflakes falling across the screen alongside the usual updates and bug fixes. It’s a fun idea and keeps the app looking fresh and new. It will be interesting to see if the developer makes this a seasonal or holiday-oriented pattern with future updates.

I find myself using Storie more than I would have expected. Its ability to share to the sites you are already using allows it to integrate easily into your style, which is an appealing and open approach.

[Jeff Phillips is an educator, photographer, and technology advocate. Find him on his blog or podcast.]