Earlier in December, Apple announced its picks for 2014’s best iOS apps, and the list didn’t surprise us. We were equally as obsessed with Threes, found Hyperlapse to be the perfect Instagram companion, and we all enjoy a little brain training now and then with Elevate.
However, we completely overlooked Storehouse, a storytelling app that was high on Apple’s list—so high, in fact, that it won Apple’s Design Award. So, before we leave 2014 completely behind (like, tomorrow), try using Storehouse to share some of your favorite memories.
Storehouse calls itself a visual storytelling app, which is super accurate. You use the app to curate photos, videos, and text into beautiful, bite-sized stories that can be easily shared with friends. The app actually emphasizes the sharing almost as much as the story—when getting started, Storehouse asks if it can browse through your contacts on your iPhone and on your social channels to find other Storehouse users for you to connect with. Of course, you can opt out of that and just find interesting accounts on your own—I’ve been following some gorgeous travel accounts, and one that’s all about coffee.
To make your own story, link up your Camera Roll, tap the Create button, and scroll through to add the content you want to use for that story. You’ll then create a header for your story with a title and subtitle overlay on top of your main photo. Storehouse lays out the rest of your content in a dynamic grid, which you can rearrange by dragging and dropping things into place and changing the image size. You can also add text and captions. Save your story as a draft until you’re ready to publish.
Don’t worry if none of your friends are on Storehouse yet—you can post stories on your other social media accounts or embed them on your own webpage.
Storehouse’s approach to storytelling is the perfect balance of involvement. It gives you the framework, helps you lay things out in a cohesive way, then backs off. No matter what you want to share, Storehouse will make sure it looks good.
Storehouse is available in the App Store for the iPhone and iPad.
Author: Leah Yamshon, Associate Managing Editor
Leah Yamshon is a former Macworld editor.